Celia was a powerful hurricane with winds of 85 kts (98 mph) a couple days ago but has recently been moving over cooler ocean waters that are contributing to a weakening trend. Hurricane Celia had weakened to a tropical storm with winds of about 45 kts (52 mph) when the GPM core observatory satellite flew over on July 14, 2016 at 0001 UTC. GPM found that convective storms were mainly located to the north and northeast of Celia's center of circulation. GPM's Microwave Imager (GMI) and Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) found that rain was falling at over 164 mm (6.4 inches) per hour within the small area of a feeder band spiraling into the northeastern side of the center of circulation.

With this orbit GPM's radar (DPR Ku Band) made 3-D measurements of Celia's cloud tops and found that they were mainly shallow. A few cloud tops in the most powerful storms were measured by DPR reaching altitudes of over 11 km (6.8 miles).

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) indicates that Celia's movement over cool ocean waters will result in weakening and that Celia will become a post-tropical cyclone in 24 to 36 hours