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What's the difference between a tropical storm and subtropical storm?

Alberto is subtropical right now, but could soon become a tropical storm.

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- Subtropical Storm Alberto formed Friday morning, and it's expected to make landfall somewhere along the northern Gulf coast.

It's the first named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season.

Alberto might change from a subtropical storm to a tropical storm as it moves through the Gulf of Mexico.

What's the difference? Well, it gets technical, but basically in a subtropical storm, the strongest winds extend about 100 miles or more from its center.

A couple characteristics of a subtropical storm is an exposed center with the thunderstorms in a band removed from the center of the storm. As the storm transitions to a tropical storm the thunderstorms and strongest winds will position themselves near the center. #Alberto pic.twitter.com/R9lRjLSLpb
— Grant Gilmore (@grant_gilmore) May 25, 2018

Storms then have the potential to become a tropical storm with winds closer to its center.

Check the latest spaghetti models, forecast cone and satellite image

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