Tropical Storm Maarutha became the first tropical cyclone of 2017 in the Bay of Bengal when it formed on April 15, 2017. Maarutha intensified slightly as it moved northeastward toward Burma (Myanmar). Maarutha reached it's maximum sustained wind speed of 45 kts (52 mph) over the open waters of the Bay Of Bengal. The GPM core observatory satellite had a good view of the forming tropical cyclone on April 14, 2017 at 0121 UTC when it was in the Bay Of Bengal west of the Andaman Islands. GPM had another excellent view just before the organizing tropical cyclone was designated tropical storm

Two extra-tropical cyclones recently dropped very heavy rain over New Zealand. Tropical cyclone Debbie dumped extreme amounts of rain over the northeastern coast of Australia when it hit the Queensland coast on March 28, 2017. After drenching northeastern Australia Extra-tropical Cyclone Debbie transported a river of water over New Zealand last week. Debbie's remnants dropped heavy rainfall that caused widespread flooding near the Bay of Plenty on New Zealand's northeastern coast. Thousands of residents needed to be evacuated with extra-tropical cyclone Debbie. This week extra-tropical cyclone

During the initial setup up for V04 IMERG, an error was made in the configuration for running the EARLY version of IMERG. This affected the V04A early data from Feb 5 - March 12, 2017. This error caused the early and the late products to be identical. Given that the LATE product is the more accurate product this might not be an issue for many users. However, users who need a consistent approach in the early data will need to download IMERG early Feb 5-March 12, 2017 again. On April 12, 2017 at about 16:55 UTC Feb 5-Feb 28, 2017 files have been rerun and are available from their usual location

Over the past few days a slow moving frontal system moving through the Southwest produced heavy rain resulting in flooding and mudslides over central Texas. One person was reported swept away by flood water near Fort Hood Texas. NASA's Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) data were used to provide an estimate of rainfall accumulation over Texas. From April 10-12, 2017 IMERG estimates indicate that over 8 inches (203 mm) of rain fell in the area from central Texas through northern Louisiana.