image: On Sept. 14 at 5:15 a.m. EDT (915 UTC) MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite provided an infrared image of Tropical Storm Norma that showed powerful thunderstorms with cloud top temperatures near minus 70F (red). view more
Credit: Credits: NASA/NRL
Tropical Storm Norma is the newest addition to the tropical cyclones in the Eastern Pacific and NASA's Terra satellite caught it after it developed.
Tropical Depression 15E lies to the west of Norma, and Hurricane Max lies to the east, and along the coast of southwestern Mexico. Norma formed quickly and is the seventeenth tropical cyclone of the Eastern Pacific Hurricane season.
On Sept. 14 at 5:15 a.m. EDT (915 UTC) the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite provided an infrared image of Tropical Storm Norma. Infrared satellite imagery showed coldest cloud top temperatures were as cold as minus 70 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 56.6 degrees Celsius). NASA research indicates very cold cloud tops with the potential to generate very heavy rainfall.
The National Hurricane Center (NHC) noted at 11 a.m. EDT (100 UTC), the center of Tropical Storm Norma was located near 17.2 degrees north latitude and 109.5 degrees west longitude. It was about 150 miles (240 km) southeast of Socorro Island, Mexico. Norma was moving toward the north near 5 mph (7 kph), and this general motion at an even slower forward speed is expected to continue through early Saturday.
Maximum sustained winds are near 40 mph (65 kph) with higher gusts. Strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours, and Norma could become a hurricane by late Friday. Tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 70 miles (110 km) from the center. The estimated minimum central pressure is 1004 millibars.
Norma is forecast to move north so interests in extreme southern Baja California Sur should monitor the progress of the storm.
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For updated forecasts on Norma, visit: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov.
Rob Gutro
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.