Hurricane Season 2010: Hurricane Paula (Atlantic Ocean)

GOES-13 Satellite Sees Paula Form and Become a Hurricane

The GOES-13 Satellite is keeping an eye on the western Caribbean and watched Tropical Storm Paula form quickly from a low pressure area. Today, October 12, Paula has strengthened into a hurricane.

GOES-13, a Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite operated by NOAA provides data to NASA's GOES Project at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. who creates images and animations from it. The image from October 12 at 0745 UTC (3:45 a.m. EDT) was a full-disk image of North and South America and showed Paula 190 miles south-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico near 18.1 north and 85.4 west. Paula had maximum sustained winds near 75 mph, and was moving northwest near 10 mph.

A hurricane warning is in effect for the Mexican coast from Punta Gruesa north to Cabo Catoches, including Cozumel. Tropical Storm warnings are in effect from Chetumal north to south of Punta Gruesa and from Cabo Catoche to San Felipe.

Paula is forecast to remain in the western Caribbean, and after a couple of days of opportunity to strenghten, it will face dry air thereafter, weakening it.

Text credit: Rob Gutro

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

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