The northern Philippines can’t seem to get a break from the tropical trouble this typhoon season. Even though the country is still reeling from Tropical Depression Parma, which just dissipated over Vietnam, another Tropical Storm in the Western Pacific is now forecast to track in their direction early next week. The Philippine Atmospheric Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (Pagasa) said Tropical Storm 22W may head towards the Northern Luzon-Taiwan area. As of Thursday, October 15 at 11 a.m. EDT, 22W was at Tropical Storm status, with maximum sustained winds near 52 mph (45 knots). It was located 220 nautical miles northeast of Yap, and was moving westward near 20 mph. Yap is an island in the Caroline Islands of the western Pacific Ocean. It is a state of the Federated States of Micronesia. NASA’s Aqua satellite flew over Tropical Storm 22W at 1:30 p.m. local time on October 15 and its Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument captured a visible image of the storm, which was still strengthening. AIRS infrared imagery showed multiple bands of deep convection that are starting to wrap around the low level center of circulation. That’s an indication of a strengthening storm, and reflects the storm’s change from a tropical depression to a tropical storm over the last 12 hours. |
atricia’s Remnants Breaking Up at Sea Patricia’s remnants are moving away from southern Baja California and out to sea, so the threat from any more rain in the extreme southern Baja is fading. Patricia’s remnants are located near 22 North Latitude and 113 West longitude. The remnants are moving west-southwest. Satellite data revealed no convection (rising air that creates thunderstorms) near the center of the former Patricia. Patricia is expected to fully dissipate into an “open trough,” or elongated area of low pressure, by the weekend. Forecasters are now watching another area in the Eastern Pacific, south of where Patricia lies. A low pressure area near 11 degrees North Latitude and 95 degrees West Longitude, just south of the Bay of Tehuantepec may develop into a tropical cyclone. It has scattered moderate to isolated showers and thunderstorms that stretch north of the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) to the Mexican coast between 10 degrees and 16 degrees North, and between 93 and 99 degrees West. There’s a lot of moisture there, and little wind shear, making two ingredients necessary to create a tropical cyclone. Right now, there’s a 50 percent chance that a tropical cyclone will develop there in the next 48 hours. |
