Tropical Storm Cindy's Ghost Could Come Back To Life Near Bermuda, But Is Not A U.S. Threat

Tropical Storm Cindy may have a second life later this week and could become a rare late June or early July depression or storm near Bermuda, but doesn't pose a threat to other land areas.

Didn't Cindy fizzle already? Technically, yes.

T​he National Hurricane Center issued its "final advisory" on Cindy late Sunday night. At that time, the NHC noted wind shear had blown thunderstorms away from its previous center, and that its center was no longer a closed circulation, but rather an open tropical wave.

Here's why Cindy could come back: As the map above shows, Cindy's remnants or "ghost" is expected to move northward into a small pocket of lower wind shear than what ripped it apart last weekend.

Combined with a still relatively warm ocean, that could allow for thunderstorms to become more clustered again and reform a tropical depression or tropical storm as it's near Bermuda later this week.

T​herefore, the NHC has assigned a chance of development with Cindy's ghost. If it did become a depression or storm again, it would keep the same name.

If it springs back to life, here's where it may go. After brushing Bermuda on Thursday or Friday, this system may drift north, or even somewhat to the east. If it regenerated, the majority of guidance suggests either a depression or, at most, a low-end tropical storm.

R​egardless, its second wind may not last long. That's because that brief time window of lower wind shear may slam shut, shearing the system out one final time.

P​erspective - Yet Another Oddity?

C​indy and Bret already made history, becoming the first pair of active storms at one time in June since 1968.

N​ever before had more than one such storm formed in the same hurricane season in June east of the Lesser Antilles, until Bret and Cindy did so.

"​Zombie storms" aren't as strange as they sound. Storms coming back to life have happened every few years or so in the Atlantic Basin.

T​he last time that happened was in September 2020, when Paulette regenerated into a tropical storm near the Azores after it ran over Bermuda as a hurricane.

The most infamous recent example of such a zombie storm was Harvey, which after degenerating into a tropical wave in the central Caribbean Sea rapidly intensified into a Category 4 hurricane that then hammered and flooded coastal Texas into Louisiana in August 2017.

T​racks near Bermuda are few this time of year. Apart from the somewhat odd nature of regeneration, there aren't many tropical cyclone tracks in this part of the Atlantic Basin this time of year.

O​nly three other depressions or storms in NOAA's database have tracked within 60 nautical miles of Bermuda in June.

Before it later became a hurricane, Tropical Storm Chris was the last such storm to do so in June 2012.

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