In April 2026, Typhoon Sinlaku impacted the Pacific Islands of Guam, Saipan, and Tinian. As the storm approached the islands and made landfall, NASA's Global Precipitation Measurement mission (GPM) satellite and multi-satellite data-processing algorithms gave insights into the rain that fell from this powerful storm. Now, learn how GPM helps us go beyond individual snapshots of surface rainfall by observing Typhoon Sinlaku over time and through the depth of Earth's atmosphere. The Time Dimension Because of technological limitations, satellite instruments that see into a storm don't hover over

The GPM Core Observatory flew over the center of Super Typhoon Sinlaku at 12:08 UTC (10:08 pm LST) April 12th, providing a detailed look into the structure and intensity of the precipitation within Sinlaku.

After intensifying into a powerful Category 4 cyclone (Category 5 on the Australian scale) in the Coral Sea, Narelle made landfall on the east coast of Queensland, before continuing on across the Northern Territory, and turning south to make landfall yet again in Western Australia. Along the way, Narelle brought gusty winds and heavy rains to all three regions. Narelle first began as a westward-moving area of low pressure south of the Solomon Islands. Warm sea surface temperatures (SSTs), weakening wind shear, and persistent convective activity allowed the circulation to organize such that the

Several atmosphere rivers have recently carried plumes of moisture from the Tropics toward the United States. These plumes of water vapor have contributed to flood-producing storms over Washington State during the first three weeks of December 2025.

As Hurricane Melissa passed over Jamaica on Oct. 28, 2025, NASA’s IMERG algorithm provided near real-time estimates of rainfall using data from an international constellation of satellites united by the GPM Core Observatory. The below animation of IMERG precipitation rates and accumulations shows data from Oct. 23 through Oct. 29, revealing that central Jamaica received an estimated 18–24 inches of rain, much of it falling on the 28th. These satellite-based estimates were broadly consistent with the National Hurricane Center’s forecast, which anticipated 20–30 inches of rain due to the storm’s

After forming into a hurricane in the central Atlantic on the morning of Friday August 15 th, Hurricane Erin underwent a period of extremely rapid intensification as it was passing northeast of the Leeward Islands, becoming a powerful Category 5 storm and the most rapidly deepening hurricane in the Atlantic before the month of September. Last year in early October in the then Gulf of Mexico, Hurricane Milton became the fastest Atlantic storm to intensify from a tropical depression to a Category 5 storm. Erin originated from an African easterly wave that emerged off the coast of Africa on the 9

NASA's Worldview website now allows you to explore global estimates of rainfall and snowfall from 1998 to the present at 30-minute intervals. Researchers and application developers have been using this dataset since 2014 (Portier 2024; Portier et al. 2023), but now it is also available as images in Worldview.

Over the fourth of July weekend, the Texas Hill Country was devastated by a powerful flash flood event. River levels rose rapidly, on the order of 20 feet or more in 1 to 2 hours or less, all along the upper part of the Guadalupe River. The main flood event started overnight and continued throughout the morning of July 4, resulting in widespread destruction, hundreds of water rescues, many deaths, and numerous people still reported as missing. The Hill Country can be susceptible to flash floods as water tends to run off rather than being absorbed by the soil and plants. The culprit for this

This past week, a slow-moving, upper-level system moving through the central U.S. triggered several days of severe weather. The system caused numerous tornadoes, as well as heavy rains and flooding from the Deep South up through the middle Mississippi River Valley and into the Ohio River valley. The situation began when an upper-level area of low pressure situated over the northeast Pacific pivoted down into the central Rockies, creating a deep trough of low pressure aloft that extended down into the northern Baja. This channeled strong jet stream winds from south of the Four Corners region up

Most people live in places where it rains much more often than it does in the Sahara Desert. For this reason, it can be challenging to make sense of news reports of major storms in the Sahara. NASA satellite data and rainfall statistics can give the needed context. Below is a discussion of three news stories about rainfall in or near the Sahara Desert during August and September 2024. These news stories described storm runoff, infrastructure damage, and the rain's impact on the ecosystems at the edge of the desert. Areas with significant impacts are shown in green in Figure 1. Figure 1. A map