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."