Tropical Storm Rick made landfall in western Mexico this morning, October 21 near Mazatlan around 7 a.m. PDT (11 a.m. EDT) with maximum sustained winds of about 55 mph. NASA satellites kept monitoring Rick’s behavior prior to landfall, providing valuable data about Rick’s clouds, temperatures and rainfall to forecasters.

TRMM’s Precipitation Radar (PR) and Microwave Imager (TMI) analysis on October 20 at 6:33 p.m. EDT showed very heavy rainfall, as much as 2 inches per hour, located between Rick’s center of circulation and the southern tip of the Baja Peninsula before it made landfall earlier today.

By 2 p.m. EDT today, October 21, Rick was already well inland and located about 70 miles northeast of Mazatlan, Mexico, near 23.9 North and 105.6 West. Rick has also weakened into a depression over the mountains of western Mexico, with sustained winds near 35 mph. Rick is expected to degenerate to a remnant low pressure area later today, and his remnants are expected to track into Texas. He was moving to the northeast near 17 mph and had a minimum central pressure of 1004 millibars.

Even though Tropical Storm Warnings for Mexico have been discontinued, the rainfall is going to be problematic as Rick moves through. Rainfall totals between 4 and 6 inches are expected over Sinaloa and Durango, and some areas could see as much as 10 inches. That poses a danger for flooding and mudslides.

The outer fringes of Typhoon Lupit’s clouds were spreading over Luzon, in the Philippines today, October 21, as Lupit continues to approach from the east. NASA satellites are hard at work verifying the extent of the storm’s cloud cover, rainfall within, and maximum sustained winds.

NASA’s Aqua, QuikScat and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite have been collecting valuable data about components of the storm, that forecasters use to make their prognostications.

At 11 a.m. EDT (11 p.m. Asia/Manila Time) today, Typhoon Lupit (known as Ramil in the Philippines) had maximum sustained winds near 92 mph (80 knots) and was about 390 nautical miles northeast of Manila. That puts the center of the storm near 19.4 north and 125.3 East. Despite being that far away, Lupit’s fringe clouds are already overspreading northeastern Luzon. Lupit is moving west-southwest near 8 mph, and is generating 33 foot-high swells in the ocean.

Unfortunately, the storm is in an area with low to moderate vertical wind shear (winds blowing at different levels of the atmosphere that can tear a storm apart), so forecasters anticipate little fluctuation in intensity.

Many warnings are in effect in the Philippines. They include: Public Storm Warning Signal 3 is in force in the following areas of Luzon: Batanes Group of Islands, Cagayan, Calayan Island and Babuyan Islands. Public Storm Warning Signal 2 is in force in the following areas of Luzon: Ilocos Norte & Sur, Apayao, Abra, Kalinga, Isabela, Mt Province, Ifugao, Benguet and La Union; and Public Storm Warning Signal 1 is in force in the following areas of Luzon: Pangasinan, Nueva Vizcaya, Quirino, Aurora, Northern Quezon, Polillo Islands, Nueva Ecija, Tarlac and Zambales.

NASA’s Quick Scatterometer satellite (QuikScat) has been watching Lupit’s winds by using microwaves to peer into the clouds. QuikScat can determine the speed of the rotating winds. QuikScat showed Lupit QuikScat captured an inside look at Typhoon Lupit’s winds on Oct. 21 at 10:13 UTC (6:13 a.m. EDT/6:13 p.m. Asia/Manila Time) and identified the extent of winds up to 46 mph in the outer bands of the storm. QuikScat also revealed areas of heavy rain in the storm.

NASA’s Aqua satellite flew over Typhoon Lupit on Oct. 21 at 1:05 a.m. EDT (1:05 p.m. Asia/Manila Time) and the Moderate Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument onboard captured Lupit tracking west through the Philippine Sea toward a landfall in Luzon.

TRMM’s Precipitation Radar and Microwave Imager analysis of Lupit’s rainfall on October 21 at 10:24 a.m. EDT (10:24 p.m. Asia/Manila Time) showed very heavy rainfall, as much as 2 inches per hour in the south and southeastern parts of the typhoon, mostly around the eyewall. In the northwest quadrant of the typhoon, however, the precipitation is much less intense. This is in contrast to the precipitation pattern on October 18, 2009 when the then super typhoon Lupit had continuous bands of precipitation circling its eye.

Using all of that satellite data and computer forecast models, the Naval Maritime Forecast Center in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii forecasts that Lupit will continue moving slowly in a west-southwesterly direction toward the northern tip of the Philippines and intensify slightly.