image: NOAA's GOES-West satellite's infrared data from July 3 at 9:15 a.m. EDT showed Douglas appeared less organized and less-round than the day before. view more
Credit: Image Credit: NASA/NOAA GOES Project
Tropical Storm Douglas is on a weakening trend, according to the National Hurricane Center, and satellite imagery showed that the storm appeared more elongated on July 3.
NOAA's Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite or GOES-West satellite captured visible data on Douglas just after sunrise on July 3 at 13:15 UTC (9:15 a.m. EDT). The data from GOES-West was made into an image at NASA/NOAA's GOES Project at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md.
Forecaster Stewart at the National Hurricane Center cited that Douglas' thunderstorm activity had been gradually waning during the early morning hours on July 3 and infrared data, such as that from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite showed that cloud tops were warming, which indicates cloud heights were falling and the uplift of air in the storm was weakening. Despite that, microwave satellite data from NOAA's AMSU instrument and NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite indicated that Douglas had maintained a tight low-level circulation including a shallow eye-like feature.
On July 3 at 5 a.m. EDT (9:00 UTC), Douglas' maximum sustained winds were near 40 mph (65 kph) and the storm was weakening. The center of Douglas was located near latitude 20.4 north and longitude 116.5 west, about 455 miles (735 km) west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico. Douglas is moving toward the northwest near 3 mph (6 kph).
The NHC expects Douglas to become a tropical depression late on July 3 and degenerate into a remnant low pressure area by the fourth of July.