Hurricane Earl and the low pressure area that now has a 90% chance of becoming Tropical Depression 8 moving west through the central Atlantic.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite, GOES-13 is operated by NOAA, and NASA’s GOES Project at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. creates images and animations from GOES data.

The low pressure area’s showers and thunderstorms are gradually becoming better organized in association with a low pressure system located about 1050 miles east of the Lesser Antilles. Right now the National Hurricane Center gives the low a high chance of becoming tropical depression 8 in the next 48 hours. That may mean a one-two punch for the Leeward Islands. The low is moving west at about 20 mph.

Hurricane Danielle became the first major hurricane of the 2010 Atlantic hurricane season overnight as it continued to make its way through the central Atlantic.

Danielle, which had been a Category 2 storm the day before with sustained winds estimated at around 95 knots (~110 mph) by the National Hurricane Center, quickly intensified overnight and by morning was a power Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale with sustained winds of 115 knots (132 mph).

“The TRMM satellite passed directly over Danielle during the night and captured remarkable images as the storm was in the process of intensifying,” said Steve Lang, research meteorologist on the TRMM team in the Mesoscale Atmospheric Processes Branch at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.

Two images were taken from TRMM at 06:46 UTC (2:46 a.m. EDT) on August 27. The first image showed a top-down view of the horizontal pattern of rain intensity within the storm. Rain rates in the center of the swath are from the TRMM Precipitation Radar (PR), and those in the outer swath are from the TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI).The rain rates are overlaid on infrared (IR) data from the TRMM Visible Infrared Scanner (VIRS), and are created at NASA Goddard. TRMM is managed by both NASA and the Japanese Space Agency, JAXA.

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.

Tropical Depression Two (TD2) had some strong, high thunderstorms a day after its center made landfall. TD2 appears elongated on satellite imagery, and its rains stretch from southeastern Texas to northeastern Mexico. Those rains are still prompting flash flood watches and warnings.

TD2’s high thunderstorm cloud tops on July 8 at 19:29 UTC (3:29 p.m. EDT) as its rains stretched from southeastern Texas to northeastern Mexico. The coldest cloud tops were as cold as -63F, and indicate areas of heavy rainfall.

On Friday, July 9, at 5 a.m. EDT, the National Weather Service’s Hydrometeorological Prediction Center (HPC) in Camp Springs, Md. noted that “Locally heavy rains continue to spread across the Rio Grande Valley.”

As TD2’s rainfall continues to sweep warm, moisture in from the Gulf of Mexico, flood and flash flood watches remain in effect across much of Texas. Coastal flood warnings remain in effect along portions of the western Gulf coast.

At 5 a.m. EDT, TD2’s center was about 115 miles southwest of Laredo, Texas near 26.5 North and 100.9 West. Maximum sustained winds were near 20 mph with higher gusts, and TD2 is expected to move farther inland into the higher terrain of northern Mexico later today or tonight, and dissipate over the weekend.

Expecting Alex in the Caribbean

Forecasters on June 25 had given System 93L in the western Caribbean an 80 percent chance of developing into Tropical Depression Alex, and weekends seem to always birth tropical depressions. The GOES-13 satellite captured a visible image of both System 93L and a second low east of the Leeward Islands that has a much lesser chance of development this weekend.

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite called GOES-13 captured a visible image of System 93L and the second area of cloudiness and showers east of the Leewards in a satellite image on June 25 at 14:45 UTC (10:45 a.m. EDT). The satellite image was created by NASA’s GOES Project, located at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. GOES-13 is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

System 93L has become better organized today and upper-level winds are becoming more conducive for development, so tropical depression Alex will likely form later today or Saturday.

The second area that forecasters are watching this weekend is in the eastern Caribbean, east of the Leeward Islands. It’s a disorganized area of clouds and showers that is associated with a tropical wave that’s interacting with an upper-level trough. A trough is an elongated area of low pressure (and this one is in the upper level of the troposphere).

The National Hurricane Center only gives this system a 20 percent chance of development into a tropical depression over the next 48 hours. The low is moving northwest between 10 and 15 mph.