Extreme Weather News

Tropical cyclone development has been relatively slow in the Atlantic Ocean in 2015 with tropical depression Nine (TD9) forming today in the central tropical Atlantic. GPM's Microwave Imager (GMI) and Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) instruments collected data today at 1016 UTC (6:16 AM EDT). Data from that pass were used to show the three dimensional (3-D) extent of TD9's rainfall. GPM's 3-D DPR (Ku Band) found that the tallest convective thunderstorms within TD9 were reaching heights of about 14.9 km (9.2 miles) in a feeder band southeast of TD9's center of circulation. The most

Tropical storm Vamco formed in the South China Sea on September 13, 2015 and went ashore in Vietnam a few days later. Although short lived Vamco dropped very heavy rainfall over the mountainous terrain of central Vietnam and in Laos and eastern Thailand. An Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) rainfall analysis is shown here for the period from September 12-15, 2015. This analysis indicates that during this short period over 220 mm (8.7 inches) rain fell along the tropical storm's path. Flash floods and landslides were likely in areas where this drenching rainfall occurred.

Over the past week Japan has experienced extreme rainfall that resulted in flooding, landslides and many injuries. A nearly stationary front that was already moving over Japan caused much of the rain but tropical storm ETAU also interacted with the front and magnified the scale of the deluge. Heavy rainfall led to the evacuation of over one million people. This rainfall analysis from space was generated using NASA's Integrated Multi-satellite Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) data. It shows rainfall total estimates for Japan during the seven day period from September 2-9, 2015 when Japan was getting

On Saturday September 5, 2015 a tropical disturbance south of the Cape Verde Islands in the eastern Atlantic Ocean was designated tropical depression number seven (TD7). TD7 was subsequently upgraded to tropical storm Grace that evening after the tropical depression showed increasingly better organization. The GPM core observatory satellite flew above tropical storm Grace on September 6, 2015 at 0111 UTC. Data captured by GPM's Microwave Imager (GMI) and Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) instruments with that pass showed that the tropical storm was small but had well defined curved

Fred became the first Cape Verdes hurricane of the 2015 Atlantic season when it was upgraded from a tropical storm on August 31, 2015 at 0600 UTC (2 AM AST). The GPM core observatory satellite flew over on August 30, 2015 at 0236 UTC when Fred was forming from a tropical wave that moved off the African coast. Rainfall was measured by GPM's Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) at the extreme rate of close to 128 mm (5.0 inches) per hour. Rainfall in towering convective thunderstorms at Fred’s center of circulation were providing the energy necessary for intensification into a hurricane