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Whether or not it rains a week from now where you live may seem mostly random, but a long enough data record will likely reveal rainfall patterns that repeat over hours, months, or years. Atmospheric scientists describe some of these repeating patterns as cycles and others as oscillations. There are annual and daily precipitation cycles tied to the variation of the sun's path across the sky [1]. An example of precipitation affected by time of day is that summer thunderstorms occur predominantly in afternoon or early evening along the East Coast of the United States. An example of seasonal

After rapidly intensifying over the western Pacific, Super Typhoon Bavi became the second super typhoon to strike the Northern Marianas this year, passing over the island chain north of Guam with maximum sustained winds reported at 180 mph by the US Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC). Super Typhoon Sinlaku also hit the islands back in mid-April. Bavi continued on to make landfall in eastern China where it brought heavy rains to the region. Like Typhoon Sinlaku, Bavi began in the West Pacific Ocean between Micronesia and the Marshall Islands from a broad westward-moving area of thunderstorm

When Typhoon Sinlaku struck the Northern Mariana Islands and Guam, it disabled ground-based weather radars and rain gauges – the very tools designed to track the storm. As part of the coordinated U.S. response to Sinlaku, the NASA Disasters Program shared IMERG satellite-based observations of rainfall, filling a critical data gap and giving responders a clearer view of the storm’s impacts.

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.