Tropical Depression Dujuan Fighting to Live

Tropical Depression Dujuan formed early today, September 4, and is fighting upper level winds to stay alive some 465 miles south-southeast of Okinawa, Japan.

Tropical Depression Dujuan, also known as storm 13 W (for the thirteenth tropical cyclone in the western Pacific Ocean) had maximum sustained winds near 40 mph earlier today. It was located near 19.0 north and 131.1 east, and moving northeast around 15 mph.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite flew over the large Tropical Storm Dujuan and revealed cold high, thunderstorm clouds, as cold as -63F on September 3 at 1:11 p.m. EDT. Infrared imagery shows the temperature of the cloud tops which gives a hint about the power of the thunderstorms in a tropical cyclone. The colder the clouds are, the higher they are, and the more powerful the thunderstorms are that make up the cyclone.

The storm is forecast to move north-northeast and is forecast to move east of Japan, with its center staying at sea. On its track into the open waters of the Western Pacific Ocean it is expected to get close enough to Japan to bring rain there over the weekend.

Jimena crawled over the southern and central Baja California over the last couple of days bringing rainfall and gusty winds, and is now weakening while centered in the Gulf of California.

The Gulf of California is the area of water between the Baja California peninsula and western (mainland) Mexico. At 11 a.m. EDT (8 a.m. PDT) on September 4, Jimena had sustained winds near 30 mph. Her center was located near 27.7 north and 111.8 west, about 40 miles northeast of Santa Rosalia, Mexico. She was crawling west near 2 mph and had a minimum central pressure of 1008 millibars.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental (GOES) satellite, GOES-11 saw Jimena’s clouds over the Gulf of California and extending into western Mexico in a satellite snapshot on Fridady, September 4. GOES is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

NASA’s GOES Project, located at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. creates some of the satellite images from the GOES satellites. Jimena is crawling west and is expected to weaken further to a “remnant low pressure area” later today.