One tropical cyclone’s life has come to an end in the Western Pacific today and one has just started. Tropical Storm Parma made landfall late on October 13 (EDT) south of Hanoi, Vietnam. Tropical Depression 22W (TD22W) formed more than 300 miles northwest of Guam in the open ocean.

Tropical Storm Parma’s long life has finally come to an end in Vietnam, after causing misery, destruction and death in the Northern Philippines and Hainan Island, China. More than 375 people were killed in the Philippines and China from Parma’s flooding rains and winds.

Parma made landfall in Vietnam late on October 13 (EDT) and more than 30,000 people were evacuated from the country’s northern coast. The U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center, the organization that forecasts tropical cyclones in that part of the world, issued their last advisory on Parma on October 14 at 1200 UTC (8 a.m. EDT). At that time, Parma still had maximum sustained winds near 35 knots (39 mph) and was still a tropical storm over land. Parma’s center was 45 miles east-southeast of Hanoi, Vietnam near 20.8 North and 106.5 East. It was moving farther inland in a north-northwesterly direction near 4 mph.

At that time, satellite data indicated that deep convection no longer existed in the storm. Local reports on October 14 at 11 a.m. EDT (10 p.m. Local Time) showed some rainfall occurring in various cities. The airport at Bach Long Vi had a temperature of 76 degrees Fahrenheit and light rain with light southeast winds near 7 mph. Ho Chi Minh city reported light rain with an east wind near 13 mph. The airport at Phan Thiet reported a thunderstorm with 2 mph winds from the northeast. Pharma should dissipate in the next day or two.

NASA’s Aqua satellite flew over Tropical Storm Parma and the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument onboard captured an infrared image on October 12 at 2:59 p.m. EDT (18:59 UTC). The AIRS image showed Parma as a rounded area of showers and thunderstorms in the Gulf of Tonkin and its western fringes had just begun to affect northern Vietnam’s coast. AIRS’ infrared imagery indicated there were still some strong thunderstorms with very high, cold cloud tops in the center of the storm.

Meanwhile a new tropical depression was born far to Pharma’s location. On October 14 at 8 a.m. EDT (1200 UTC), Tropical Depression 22W was about 320 miles southeast of Guam, near 10.1 North and 149.1 East. It was moving west near 17 mph and had maximum sustained winds near 34 mph.

NASA and the Japanese Space Agency’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite flew over the center of TD22W’s center on October 14 at 3:52 a.m. EDT and captured light to moderate rainfall around the storm’s center.

TRMM rainfall images are false-colored with yellow, green areas, which indicate light to moderate rainfall between 20 and 40 millimeters (.78 to 1.57 inches) per hour and that’s what scientists at NASA noticed from the data on TD22W.

The forecast track takes TD22W between Andersen Air Force Base and the island of Yap, on a northwesterly course. Andersen Air Force Base is a United States Air Force base on the northern end of the island of Guam. It sits atop a 500 foot plateau on the extreme northeast portion of the island. The base is named for Brigadier General James Roy Andersen.