Hurricane Season 2011: Tropical Depression 3E (Eastern Pacific)

NASA's TRMM Satellite Sees Third Tropical Depression Form in E. Pacific

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite passed over an area of low pressure in the eastern Pacific Ocean south of Mexico on July 7, 2011 at 0234 UTC (July 6 at 10:34 EDT) and captured rainfall in the newly formed third tropical depression of the hurricane season.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami, Florida upgraded this area of low pressure to a tropical depression at 1500 UTC (8:00 a.m. PDT). At that time, maximum sustained winds were near 35 mph (55 km/h) and the center was located near 14.8 North and 101.2 West, which is about 355 miles (570 km) southeast of Manzanillo, Mexico. Tropical Depression 3E is moving to the west-northwest near 13 mph (20 km/h) and has a minimum central pressure of 1005 millibars.

The rainfall analysis from TRMM's Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) data was overlaid on an infrared image from TRMM's Visible and InfraRed Scanner (VIRS) by Hal Pierce of SSAI at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. The analysis showed that there were only a few areas of moderate to heavy rainfall associated with the developing tropical depression at the time of this TRMM orbit.

The strongest rainfall (about 2 inches/50 mm per hour) appeared in isolated areas south of the center of circulation. The moderate rainfall was falling at a rate between .78 and 1.57 inches (20 and 40 mm) per hour.

Conditions are expected to be favorable for the depression to become a tropical storm within the next couple days, and when it does, it would be renamed "Calvin." The storm is expected to remain over open waters well south of the coast of southwestern Mexico.

Text credit:Hal Pierce, SSAI/NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.