Heidi

On 10 January 2012 at 1544 UTC the TRMM satellite passed above tropical storm Heidi as it was forming off the northwestern coast of Australia. Heidi is the first named tropical cyclone to hit Australia this season. An analysis of rainfall from TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) data is shown above. This analysis shows that Heidi was starting to get organized with bands of heavy convective rainfall spiraling toward the center of the storm. Heidi was dropping rainfall at a rate of over 50mm/hr (~2 inches) in some areas. A 3-D image above was made from TRMM PR data. It shows