Hurricane Isaac's remnants could form into new system

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - It's an unlikely story, but an area of low pressure that broke of from Hurricane Isaac has spawned a new system in the Gulf of Mexico.

So is Isaac another Ivan, which reformed in similar fashion in 2004?

Isaac reboot

On the area of low pressure's trip through the Gulf states, it moved south toward the Gulf of Mexico Wednesday.

Since it is only a partial remnant of that destructive storm, it won't be granted full custody of the Isaac name if it reforms. National Hurricane Center Forecaster Daniel Brown explained why.

"If it were to be the primary low that we could track the entire existence, it would retain the same name. Since this appears to have formed from something different, even though it may have been associated with the overall remnants, it would get a new name," Brown said.

This remnant broke off of a trough and moved south; the main low from Isaac dissipated over Kentucky.

"If the Hurricane center does have to restart advisories or initiate advisories it would be a new system. We don't believe it was the same low pressure area that was Isaac," Brown said.

Flashback to Ivan

The Gulf Coast has been through a similar situation before with Hurricane Ivan in 2004.

The remnant low from that storm looped back around into the Gulf, re-formed and was re-named Ivan before making another landfall in the Western Gulf.

"In the case of Ivan, it was little more trackable. That feature moved eastward than dropped back to the south-southwest and eventually reformed in the Gulf and that is why that retained it's name," Brown said.

In the case of the system in the Gulf, it isn't so simple. If it forms it will get a name change to Nadine.