Tropical storm Julia was recently downgraded to a tropical depression. The GPM core observatory satellite had an excellent view of tropical storm Julia on September 14, 2016 at 9:36 PM EDT ( September 15, 2016 0136 UTC). Julia was barely a tropical storm at that time with maximum sustained winds of about 40 mph ( 35 kts). Over the past few days Julia has dropped heavy rain along the Atlantic coastline from northeastern Florida to North Carolina. Some areas have received over 8 inches (203 inches) during the past few days. The GPM satellite measured Julia's rainfall and found that intense storms in an off shore rain band was producing very heavy downpours. GPM's Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) saw rain falling at a rate of over 9 inches (229 mm) per hour in some storms.

The GPM satellite made 3-D measurements of precipitation within Julia and discovered that some storm tops in this and band of heavy showers were reaching heights greater than 9.3 miles (15 km).