The National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued it's first advisory for tropical storm Claudette on Monday July 13, 2015 at 1PM AST. The GPM core observatory satellite had an outstanding view as it flew above tropical storm Claudette on the early evening of July 13, 2015 at 2046 UTC (4:46 PM EDT). Rainfall measurements were made by GPM’s Microwave Imager (GMI) and Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) instruments.

Claudette is a relatively small tropical storm with vertical wind shear dampening future development but GPM found heavy rainfall in some strong thunderstorms. GPM's radar instrument (DPR) measured rain falling at a rate of over 94 mm (~3.7 inches) in towering thunderstorms near Claudette's center of circulation. A 3-D view constructed from GPM's Ku Band radar reflectivity shows that a few of these towers were reaching heights of over 15 km (~9.3 miles).