Extreme Weather News

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) expects Tropical Depression Nine to intensify over the next day or so. Vertical wind shear is predicted to be low and the tropical depression is moving over warmer water. Both of these factors will provide fuel for intensification. The GPM core observatory satellite scanned the tropical depression on August 31, 2016 at 2:46 AM EDT (0646 UTC). GPM's Microwave Imager (GMI) and Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) instruments saw heavy rainfall in strong convective storms in the Gulf Of Mexico northwest of Cuba. GPM's DPR found that some of these intense

Hurricane Gaston was located in the central Atlantic Ocean west of Bermuda when the GPM core observatory satellite passed over on August 30, 2016 at 00:31 AM EDT (0431 UTC). Gaston was a category two on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale with maximum sustained winds of about 103.5 mph (90 kts). GPM happened to fly over as Gaston was undergoing an eye wall replacement. Intense rainfall was clearly shown by GPM in rain bands of both the inner and the outer replacement eye walls. Precipitation was calculated from data collected by GPM's Microwave Imager (GMI) and Dual-Frequency Precipitation

The frequency of tropical cyclone formation has definitely increased in the Atlantic Ocean basin. A tropical wave that the National Hurricane Center (NHC) had been monitoring for development since it left the African coast almost two weeks ago was upgraded to Tropical Depression Nine (TD09L) on August 28, 2016. The low pressure became a little better organized after moving into the Florida Strait and that led to the upgrade. The GPM core observatory satellite passed above the still relatively poorly organized tropical depression on August 29, 2016 at 2:56 AM EDT (0656 UTC). Maximum sustained

Lester became the 12rd named storm of the 2016 eastern Pacific Ocean hurricane today. Lester was far away from the Mexican coast early today and headed toward the west-northwest. Low vertical wind shear and warm sea surface temperatures are expected to assist Lester's intensification to hurricane status tomorrow. Tropical storm Lester had wind speeds of about 35 kts (40 mph) when the GPM core observatory satellite passed over on August 25, 2016 at 1026 UTC. Data from GPM satellite's Microwave Imager (GMI) and Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) instruments showed that Lester was getting

Gaston became the 3rd hurricane of the season early this morning (just after midnight EDT) as the storm was moving northwestward into the Central Atlantic about midway between the Leeward Islands and the Cape Verde Islands before weakening back into a tropical storm less than 12 hours later. Gaston is continuing to battle relatively strong environmental wind shear brought about by an upper-level low pressure center positioned to the west of Gaston. Winds flowing counter-clockwise around the upper low are blowing from the southwest while Gaston is moving northwest. These opposing winds are