Hurricane Season 2010: Tropical Depression 13W (Northwest Pacific)

NASA Infrared Sees Strong Thunderstorms in Newly Formed Tropical Depression 13W

The thirteenth tropical depression in the Northwestern Pacific hurricane season formed today, and NASA's infrared satellite imagery noticed some powerful thunderstorms in the system's center.

An infrared image of Tropical Depression 13W was captured from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument shortly after it was "born" early this morning. AIRS flies aboard NASA's Aqua satellite. The infrared imagery shows temperatures, from cold cloud tops to warm sea surface temperatures that power tropical cyclones. Today's image showed that the strongest convection, highest thunderstorms and heaviest rainfall were concentrated in the system's center. Those cloud top temperatures were as cold as or colder than -60 Fahrenheit, indicating strong thunderstorms.

Tropical Depression 13W (TD13W) had maximum sustained winds near 34 mph. TD13W was located approximately 225 nautical miles north of Saipan, near 18.7 North and 145.2 East. It has moved northwestward at 7 mph and is creating 12- foot high waves.

Forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center are forecasting a northwesterly track that would affect Iwo To and Chi Chi Jima this week.

Text credit: Rob Gutro, NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.