Tropical Storm Claudette Makes Landfall in Florida, Moving Into Mississippi

By mid-day today, Monday, August 17, Claudette’s center had moved into southwestern Alabama and weakened into a tropical depression. She’ll turn toward the north-northwest later today and soak Alabama with up to 10 inches of rain in some isolated areas.

At 2 a.m. EDT on Monday, August 17, Tropical Storm Claudette made landfall near Fort Walton Beach, Florida with maximum sustained winds near 50 mph. When it made landfall, tropical storm force winds extended 70 miles from the center, so towns from 70 miles to the east and west of Claudette’s center received sustained winds over 37 mph.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida issued their last advisory on Claudette this morning at 7 a.m. EDT. Now, NOAA’s Hydrometeorological Prediction Center (HPC) is issuing forecasts on Claudette as she moves through the interior U.S. At 10 a.m. EDT today, the HPC said that Claudette will track north-northwest through southwestern Alabama and northern Mississippi tonight.

The HPC expects “More precipitation to break out during the day across Alabama and the Florida panhandle mainly east of the circulation center.” They “suspect that tonight there will be the potential for very heavy rainfall amounts near the center as it reaches into northern Mississippi, especially in overnight hours when convection often flares near the center of circulation. Still expect the potential for 3 to 6 inch totals with Claudette…and isolated totals up to 10 inches mainly within the stationary bands of rainfall across the Florida panhandle.”

At 8 a.m. EDT the center of tropical depression Claudette was located near latitude 31.3 north and longitude 87.2 about, 15 Miles North-Northwest of Brewton, Alabama and about 85 miles southwest of Montgomery, Alabama. She was moving northwest near 12 mph. Claudette’s sustained winds were down to 35 mph, and she’ll continue to weaken today as she moves farther inland. The estimated minimum central pressure is 1011 millibars.

The National Weather Service in Tallahassee reported that the cities of Apalachicola and St. George areas saw a combined 4-6 inches of rain since Sunday morning. The highest wind gust in Apalachicola was reported at 50 mph.

NASA’s Aqua satellite captured Tropical Storm Claudette on Sunday, August 16 at 2:30 p.m. EDT (1:30 p.m. CDT) about 12 hours before her eye made landfall near Fort Walton Beach, Florida. The image was captured by the Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument. The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument that measures cloud temperature using infrared light. The higher the clouds are, the colder they are. One interesting thing that AIRS showed forecasters was that the extent of the cloud cover almost doubled in 11 hours on Sunday, August 16 between 3:29 a.m. EDT and 2:29 p.m. EDT, when AIRS captured images of Claudette.

Now, residents of Alabama and Mississippi should expect heavy downpours and localized flooding from Claudette’s rains. The system is expected to move toward the northwest and by tomorrow it is expected to have weakened to a depression over western Tennessee.

Ana’s Path Being Mapped by NASA Satellites, She’s Drenching Puerto Rico

Tropical Depression Ana is currently drenching Puerto Rico, and tropical storm watches are posted for Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands as Ana continues westward. Both the Aqua and GOES satellites have captured Ana on her westward track in the Atlantic.   Ana is expected to produce rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches over Puerto Rico, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands and the Dominican Republic with isolated maximum amounts of 6 inches over mountainous terrain.

Tropical Depression Ana has taken a long time to get going and she’s still squeaking by as a tropical depression. Over the weekend, NASA satellite imagery captured her short stint as a tropical storm, but she’s weakened again and is expected to now rain on Hispaniola before heading to Florida.

By 11 a.m. EDT on Monday, August 17, Ana’s center was located 75 miles south of San Juan, Puerto Rico, near 17.3 north and 66.2 west. She was moving at a good clip toward the west-northwest near 28 mph, which means that she won’t linger as long and dump as much rain. However, she’s expected to slow down in the next day or two. Maximum sustained winds remain near 35 mph, and minimum central pressure is 1008 millibars.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) flies on Aqua and provides visible, infrared and microwave images and measures cloud top temperature and pressure. AIRS captured an image of Ana on August 15 when she was a tropical storm and had good cloud formation. By mid-day on August 16, Ana deteriorated into a tropical depression.

How does infrared imagery know how high clouds are in the sky? The coldest ones are higher in the sky (because in the troposphere, the lowest layer of atmosphere where weather happens, temperatures fall the higher up you go until you get to the stratosphere). The highest clouds are as cold as or colder than 220 Kelvin or minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit (F) and second highest level of clouds are about 240 Kelvin, or minus 27F. The colder the clouds are, the higher they are, and the more powerful the thunderstorms are that make up the cyclone.

Another satellite that NASA uses is the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, or GOES. GOES-12 covers the Atlantic Ocean, and is managed by NOAA. On August 17 at 12:15 p.m. EDT, GOES-12 captured Tropical Depression Claudette over Alabama, and Tropical Depression Ana raining on Puerto Rico.

Forecasters are closely watching Ana because she may degenerate further. However, her remnants or the depression, whichever she becomes, is expected to track to Florida’s west coast.