News Release

Tropical Storm Odile expected to 'eat' Tropical Depression 16E

Peer-Reviewed Publication

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

GOES-West Image of TD16E

image: This NOAA GOES-West image taken Sept. 12 at 8 a.m. EDT shows Tropical Depression 16E (left) is about 10 times smaller in comparison to Tropical Storm Odile (right). view more 

Credit: Image Credit: NASA/NOAA GOES Project

The image of the Eastern Pacific Ocean and the two storms was taken at 8 a.m. EDT (5 a.m. PDT) on September 12. It shows that Tropical Depression 16E (TD16E) is about 10 times smaller in comparison to Tropical Storm Odile, located to its east. NOAA manages the GOES-West satellite but the image was created by the NASA/NOAA GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

The National Hurricane Center noted that TD16E is unable to intensify because of its close proximity to Tropical Storm Odile.

Forecaster Pasch at NOAA's National Hurricane Center noted that center of TD16E is very difficult to find on geostationary images (like GOES-West). Pasch noted that an image from the Special Sensor Microwave Imager aboard a Defense Meteorological Satellite Program satellite taken at 1056 UTC (6:56 a.m. EDT) indicated that TD16E's center continued to be located near the northeastern edge of the main area of thunderstorms. However, first-light visible pictures suggested that the low-level circulation is poorly defined.

At 11 a.m. EDT (8 a.m. PDT) TD16E's maximum sustained winds were near 35 mph (55 kph) and little change in strength is expected over the next two days. The center of the depression was located near latitude 16.6 north and longitude 120.0 west. That's about 785 miles (1,265 km) west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico. The depression is drifting toward the north near 2 mph (4 kph) and is expected to turn east then east-southeast as it gets caught up in Odile's circulation.

Pasch noted that the unfavorable influence of the much larger circulation of Tropical Storm Odile, centered about 800 nautical miles east, will hamper the depression's ability to strengthen. In fact, the depression is expected to dissipate in the next day or two, while being absorbed by Odile.

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