Hurricane Michael (2000) was a classic example of an extratropically transitioning Atlantic tropical storm. On 13 October 2000, an upper cold low interacted with a surface front east of the Bahamas; the resulting surface low was classified as a subtropical storm on the 15th and continued developing over open waters as it made its first transition from subtropical to tropical storm by 00 UTC 17 October 2000. At this time, Tropical Storm Michael had a deep, well developed warm core structure. Michael developed an eye later on the 17th, and continued intensifying until it made landfall on the 19th. By landfall time, Michael was evolving into an extratropical (or post-tropical) cyclone, but still maintained an eye and its lowest central pressure of 965hPa. The peak winds and central pressure of Michael were sustained as the storm completed extratropical transition on October 20th. Over the period 17-20 October, the warm core signature of Michael eroded from above, to a clearly a cold-cored, asymmetric low pressure system.

The dual interactions of Michael provide an intriguing case study for testing current theories of tropical "cyclogenesis" and extratropical transition. In this study we use satellite-derived winds and thermal fields in concert with model analyses and MM5 simulations to analyze the mesoscale evolution of Hurricane Michael through these structure transitions.