The Eye Of Powerful Hurricane Danielle

Danielle was still a powerful Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale on Friday, August 27 at 11 a.m. EDT. She had maximum sustained winds near 135 mph, and was moving northwest near 12 mph. Danielle's center was about 480 miles southeast of Bermuda near 26.9 North and 59.8 West. Her minimum central pressure is 946 millibars.

Although Danielle is not expected to be directly affected by the hurricane, Danielle will create large and dangerous surf conditions in Bermuda over the weekend. Those large ocean swells will also begin affecting the U.S. east coast beginning this weekend into next week. Beachgoers along the U.S. eastern seaboard should be aware of dangerous rip currents as a result of Danielle's passage.

Danielle is expected to remain a major hurricane until it recurves east of Bermuda and then weaken as it moves northeastward over cooler waters in the central Atlantic.

Strong Convection as Tropical Depression 7 Forms in Atlantic

At 11 a.m. EDT, System 96L strengthened and was designated the Atlantic Ocean Hurricane Season's seventh tropical depression (TD7). At that time, TD7 had maximum sustained winds near 35 mph, and is expected to strengthen into a tropical storm. If TD7 does strengthen, it would become Tropical Storm Earl.

TD7 is still in the far eastern Atlantic Ocean, about 430 miles west of the southernmost Cape Verde Islands, near 14.3 North and 30.8 West. It is moving west near 17 mph, and has a minimum central pressure of 1007 millibars.

By this morning, August 25, TD7 has "well-defined cyclonically-curved convective bands...and an established upper-level outflow in the western semicircle," according to the National Hurricane Center. That means that the depression is getting organized.

TD7 is expected to become Tropical Storm Earl later today, especially because there are unusually warm waters in the tropical Atlantic that will help fuel its development. AIRS data showed that the waters are over the 80 degree Fahrenheit threshold needed to power tropical cyclones.

Strong Thunderstorms in New Tropical Storm Frank,

Tropical depression 9E (TD9E) was located off the southern coast of Mexico late Saturday night, August 21. It developed about 210 miles southeast of Salina Cruz, Mexico. By early on Sunday, August 22 (5 a.m. EDT), TD9E was 230 miles southeast of Puerto Escondido, Mexico and slowly moving away from land, west at 7 mph. On Sunday at 11 a.m. EDT, TD9E became Tropical Storm Frank.

Today at 8 a.m. EDT (5 a.m. PDT), Tropical Storm Frank's maximum sustained winds were up to 60 mph, and strengthening is forecast. Frank is located about 105 miles south-southwest of Escondido, Mexico, near 14.3 North and 97.5 West. It has a minimum central pressure near 998 millibars and is crawling west near 4 mph. Frank is expected to turn to the west-northwest and move parallel to the coast of southern Mexico through Tuesday, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).

Tropical Depression 8E

At 8:30 a.m. EDT, TD8E had maximum sustained winds near 35 mph and was moving northwest at 7 mph. It is expected to turn to the west-northwest tonight and Saturday. It is located about 230 miles west of Manzanillo, Mexico, near 18.7 North and 107.8 West. TD8 has a minimum central pressure of 1004 millibars. TD8 could strengthen into a tropical storm for a brief time before it runs into cooler waters (cooler than 27 degrees Celsius or 80 degrees Fahrenheit) this weekend. If TD8E becomes a tropical storm, it will get the name "Frank."

Tropical Depression

On August 19 at 1:00 p.m. EDT, the lingering remnants of Tropical Depression 5, were over southern Mississippi. TD5's remnants are forecast to drift slowly eastward today and bring numerous showers and thunderstorms to southwestern Alabama. The heavy rainfall has been producing flash flooding over Mississippi. Flooding is now possible today over southwestern Alabama because of the remnants slow motion. To see the current National Weather Service (NWS) radar from Montgomery,

Located northeast of Meridian, Miss., the town of Livingston, Alabama is also forecast to experience heavy rainfall near and east of a line from the towns of Oneonta to Demopolis as TD5's remnants continue their slow crawl.

TD5's remnants will continue to crawl eastward on Friday as the NWS forecast office in Georgia expects that TD5's remnants to push into the area near Columbus on August 20, triggering showers and thunderstorms.

Tropical Depression Five's Louisiana and Mississippi

Tropical Depression Five's (TD5) remnants remain over the lower Mississippi valley today and are slowly drifting northeast. Yesterday, NASA satellite imagery observed the bulk of TD5's precipitation just south of Louisiana, over the Gulf of Mexico. Today, August 18, that precipitation has moved north and is drenching east-central Louisiana and western Mississippi.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared view of TD5's remnant clouds and showers over Louisiana and the north central Gulf of Mexico on August 18 at 08:23 UTC (4:23 a.m. EDT), and didn't show any extremely high, very cold thunderstorm cloud tops during the early morning hours, which correlates with lighter precipitation during night-time periods.

Estelle's Remnant Low Going Out Kicking

Estelle has diminished and is now a remnant low pressure system in the Eastern Pacific. GOES-11 Satellite imagery from the late morning on August 11 showed a large area of cloudiness that includes Estelle's remnants and a low pressure area nearby, that were kicking up high waves in the region.

Estelle's remnants are expected to merge with the nearby low pressure area. The low showed a burst of scattered moderate to strong convection earlier today (August 11) in its western quadrant. The merge of Estelle and the low is forecast to occur over the next day or so, as the merged system continues to drift eastward. Meanwhile, southwesterly winds in that area are between 22 and 27 mph and are kicking up 8 to 10 foot-high seas. That means that Estelle is going out "kicking."

Tropical Storm Estelle Eastern Pacific Ocean

At 900 UTC (5 a.m. EDT) on August 10, Tropical Depression Estelle had maximum sustained winds near 35 mph and continues to weaken. Estelle is located about 445 miles south-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California near 17.4 North and 113.4 West. Estelle was moving toward the southwest near 2 mph and has a minimum central pressure of 1005 millibars.

The National Hurricane Center noted that Estelle has only shown one small burst of deep convection (rapidly rising air that forms the thunderstorms that power a tropical cyclone) later in the evening of August 9 (after NASA's AIRS image was captured). Southeasterly vertical wind shear continues to batter Estelle, and the system is expected to weaken into a remnant low pressure area later today.

Tropical Storm Dianmu

Early on August 8, Dianmu formed in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean and by 2100 UTC (5 p.m. EDT) Dianmu had maximum sustained winds near 35 knots (40 mph) and was about 180 miles southwest of Okinawa, Japan.

On August 9 at 04:35 UTC (12:35 a.m. EDT), the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite captured an infrared image of Tropical Storm Dianmu. The AIRS infrared image showed very cold cloud-top temperatures and showed banding of strong thunderstorms around the north, east and south of the center of circulation. Those cloud tops were so high that they were colder than -63 Fahrenheit. The center of circulation was also clearly visible in the infrared image and appeared as a small circle.

tropical storm Colin

The area of cloudiness and rainfall with the remnants of tropical storm Colin when it flew overhead on August 5 at 0049 UTC (August 4 at 8:49 p.m. EDT).

At 2 p.m. EDT on August 5, the remnant low pressure area that was tropical storm Colin was located about 475 miles south of Bermuda and moving northwestward near 20 mph. Satellite imagery indicates that the low-level circulation of the system has become better defined. The National Hurricane Center (NHC) noted at 2 p.m. EDT that an Air Force reserve hurricane hunter aircraft is enroute to determine whether it has become a tropical depression or tropical storm.

The NHC now gives Colin a 70 percent chance of becoming a tropical cyclone again in the next 48 hours and interests in Bermuda should continue to monitor this low pressure area

TRMM Satellite Sees Colin Become a Remnant Low Pressure Area

Tropical Storm Colin was downgraded to a tropical depression after only one day as a minimal tropical storm when upper level wind shear caused Colin's demise. NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite captured an image of the storm's waning rainfall at 9:47 p.m. EDT on August 3.

When the TRMM satellite, a mission managed by both NASA and the Japanese Space Agency, JAXA, flew over Colin late on August 3 it was just a few hours after the National Hurricane Center issued their last advisory on the system. TRMM's rainfall analysis showed that there was very little left of Colin except a relatively small area of widely scattered light to moderate showers.

By 8 a.m. today, August 4, Colin had become a remnant low pressure area. The center of the remnant low was located about 150 miles east northeast of the Leeward Islands, near 17.0 North and 57.0 West. Colin's remnants continue to move west northwestward at 20 to 25 mph.

Although the National Hurricane Center noted that there's a 10% chance that Colin could become a tropical storm again in the next 48 hours, it is still expected to bring heavy rains and gusty winds to the parts of the Leeward Islands and the Virgin Islands today and tonight. Upper level winds continue to batter the storm, preventing it from regenerating today.

Tropical Depression 4 Now a Small Tropical Storm Named Colin

The fourth Atlantic tropical depression became Tropical Storm Colin early in the morning today, August 3 and NASA and other satellites are keeping tabs on it. A GOES-13 satellite visible image at 1145 UTC on August 3, showed Tropical Storm Colin as a compact area of clouds in the central Atlantic Ocean.

NASA infrared imagery from the Aqua satellite has watched Colin's convection increase over the last day, indicating the storm's strengthening to a tropical storm.

GOES-13 or the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite monitors U.S. east coast weather and is operated by NOAA. The NASA GOES Project at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. uses GOES data to create images and animations.

Colin is a small tropical storm. Tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 35 miles from the center. At 5 a.m. EDT, the center of Tropical Storm Colin had maximum sustained winds near 40 mph with higher gusts. Some additional strengthening is forecast during the next 36 hours or so.

Colin is moving toward the west northwest near 23 mph and this general motion is expected to continue for the next day or two. Colin is over open waters and not expected to affect any land areas in the next couple of days. Colin is forecast to pass well to the northeast and north of the Leeward Islands late Wednesday and early Thursday.

Hurricane Rita forecasts its landfall along the Texas Gulf Coast

NASA administrators at the organization's Johnson Space Center in Houston stopped up the manned spaceflight capability as Hurricane Rita approaches the Texas Gulf Coast.

The shutting went into consequence at 2:00 p.m. EDT and will persist until the hurricane hazard has accepted, NASA officials said, adding together that a petite crisis squad will stay behind onsite. Primary mission operations of the International Space Station now orbiting more than 200 miles above the Earth, will be offered over to Russian flight organizers while the JSC location is closed, they additional.

Flying on board the ISS are Expedition 11 commander Sergei Krikalev and flight engineer John Phillips, who are packaging up a six-month mission committed. The station squad has been conversant of the groundings, NASA administrators said.

The hurricane was hub at about 260 miles west of Key West, Florida and 775 miles east of Corpus Christi, Texas, with its landfall expected Saturday as at least a Category 3 storm, NHC forecasters taled.

Hartsfield said JSC implemented its "liberal leave" strategy allowing personnel extra time to arrange their homes and families for the hurricane's entrance, before the JSC closure. About 3,000 civil servants and up to 12,000 outworkers work at JSC, NASA officials said.Hurricane Rita is the second major hurricane NASA in recent weeks.