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.