Five years later, NASA is revisiting Hurricane Katrina with a short video that shows the storm as captured by NASA satellites. NASA provides space-based satellite observations, field research missions, and computer climate modeling to further scientists’ understanding of these storms. NASA also provides measurements and modeling of global sea surface temperatures, precipitation, winds and ocean heat content — all ingredients that contribute to the formation of tropical cyclones

On Aug. 29, 2005, after passing over the Caribbean and Florida, Katrina made landfall along the Gulf Coast as a category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale. As hurricanes go, Katrina was actually only moderate in size when it reached the Mississippi and Louisiana coasts, having weakened from a category 5 the day before. However, Katrina had a very wide footprint, which caused a broad area of large ocean swells to develop within the Gulf of Mexico. As the hurricane made its final landfall, the resulting storm surge was massive and unrelenting. Ultimately, this storm surge was responsible for much of the damage as it flooded coastal communities, overwhelmed levees, and left at least 80 percent of New Orleans underwater.

The eighth tropical depression of the Eastern Pacific Ocean hurricane season formed during the early morning hours of August 20, and the GOES-11 satellite captured infrared images of its birth.

Tropical Depression 8E (TD8E) this morning. TD8 poses no threat to land, and is forecast to keep moving away from land over the weekend.

At 8:30 a.m. EDT, TD8E had maximum sustained winds near 35 mph and was moving northwest at 7 mph. It is expected to turn to the west-northwest tonight and Saturday. It is located about 230 miles west of Manzanillo, Mexico, near 18.7 North and 107.8 West. TD8 has a minimum central pressure of 1004 millibars. TD8 could strengthen into a tropical storm for a brief time before it runs into cooler waters (cooler than 27 degrees Celsius or 80 degrees Fahrenheit) this weekend. If TD8E becomes a tropical storm, it will get the name “Frank.”

One of the two systems that forecasters have been closely watching in the Atlantic Ocean Basin became the fifth tropical depression at 7:30 p.m. EDT on August 10 in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. NASA’s TRMM satellite confirmed better organization in the system’s rainbands just before it was classified as a tropical depression.

System 94L is now Tropical Depression 5 (TD5), and is forecast to strengthen into Tropical Storm Danielle in the next day or so.

Tropical storm warning from Destin, Florida to Intracoastal City Louisiana, including Lake Pontchartrain and New Orleans. That means tropical storm conditions are expected within the warning area in 36 hours. Heavy rain, tropical storm force winds and a storm surge between 2 and 4 feet near landfall and east of landfall are forecast.

At 5 a.m. EDT on August 11, Tropical Depression 5 (TD5) had maximum sustained winds near 35 mph, and slow strengthening is expected. It was centered near 26.8 north latitude and 85.1 west longitude. Estimated minimum central pressure is 1008 millibars. It is expected to continue moving northwest near 10 mph today, and slow on Thursday, August 12 when it will be approaching the north central Gulf of Mexico in the morning.

At 11 a.m. EDT this morning, July 22, System 97L strengthened and organized into the third tropical depression of the Atlantic Ocean hurricane season triggering warnings for the Bahamas and Florida.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite known as GOES-13, continually takes images over the eastern U.S. and the latest imagery shows Tropical Depression Three (TD3) getting organized over the Bahamas. NASA’s GOES Project, located at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. created a movie of System 97L from July 19 at 2132 UTC (5:32 p.m. EDT) through July 22 at 1515 UTC (11:15 a.m. EDT) showing its development over the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, moving into the Bahamas.

In addition, a tropical storm warning has been issued for the Florida east coast from Golden Beach southward including the entire Florida Keys and Florida Bay and along the west coast of Florida northward to Bonita Beach. A tropical storm watch has been issued for the east coast of Florida from north of Golden Beach to Jupiter inlet including Lake Okeechobee.

At 1100 a.m. EDT the center of newly formed tropical depression three (TD3) was located near latitude 21.9 north and longitude 75.0 west. Maximum sustained winds are near 35 mph with higher gusts. TD3 is moving toward the west-northwest near 15 mph and it is expected to continue in this direction with an increase in forward speed during the next 48 hours. Estimated minimum central pressure is 1008 millibars. The depression could become a tropical storm later today.

System 97L may not yet be a tropical depression, but it feels like it to the residents of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Hispaniola.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami, Fla. predicted that conditions were favorable for formation of a tropical depression or tropical storm from System 97L - an area of disturbed weather over Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite passed over that area on July 21 at 0136 UTC (July 20 at 9:36 p.m. EDT) and captured data used in a rainfall analysis. This rainfall analysis shows that intense rainfall was already affecting southwestern Haiti. Some areas are receiving up to 2 inches of rain per hour as System 97L continues to develop.