This is probably not a bright question, but it does come up as I sit
here in west Alabama watching Frances go to pieces along the state
border to the east, so here it is.

In the current forecast discussion, they mention an interesting fact
that the rain shield is rotating, north at the time of the discussion,
and now possibly more to the west. That and the proximity of these
storm remnants got me wondering if there's anything scientists can
learn about hurricane/tropical cyclone structure and even formation
while watching one disintegrate inland, particularly one like Frances
that kept a strong rotation for so long, even though the situation and
processes inland obviously are so very different; that is, do basic
characteristics or patterns (or whatever the correct word for the
"bare bones" of such storms is) become more apparent, even very
briefly, once the overlay of the mature structure are gone, allowing
scientists to do some "reverse engineering" modeling, so to speak, or
is it more of just a complete dissolution through and through that
reveals more about inland weather processes than about anything
tropical?

Barb