image: There's a low pressure system about 1,200 miles southwest of the southern tip of the Baja California in the eastern Pacific Ocean that looks ripe for development into a tropical depression. On Monday, June 8, 2009, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami, Fla. stated in their tropical weather outlook at 5 a.m. EDT, that the showers and thunderstorms associated with the area of low pressure have "increased in organization overnight" from Sunday, June 7. The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES-12) captured an image of the Low on June 8 at 4:45 a.m. (8:45 UTC) from its vantage point in space. The low pressure system is the circular area of clouds on the left side of the image. The NHC said that "Conditions appear favorable for continued development and the system could become a tropical depression in the next day or two as it moves slowly west-northwestward." What's the chance that the low will become a tropical depression? Between 30 and 50 percent. That's a good chance that this storm could become the first named storm of the eastern Pacific Ocean hurricane season. If it does, it would be named Andres. GOES is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. It was created by NASA's GOES Project, located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. view more
Credit: NOAA/NASA GOES Project and Rob Gutro, NASA Goddard