Typhoon Soulik became the first super typhoon of the year when the Joint Typhoon Warning Center estimated that it's sustained winds had increased to 125 knots (~144 mph), which is equivalent to a Category 4 hurricane on the US Saffir-Simpson scale, at 00 UTC on the 10th of July. Soulik began as a tropical depression on the 8th (local time) about 120 miles (~195 km) east of the Northern Mariana Islands and quickly became a typhoon 24 hours later after moving westward into the Philippine Sea where it continued to intensify. TRMM captured this latest image of Soulik in the central Philippine Sea

Since forming on the night (EDT) of 7 July 2013 in the tropical central Atlantic, Tropical Storm Chantal has continued to race westward at up to 29 mph (~46 kph) and has now entered the eastern Caribbean with sustained winds reported at 65 mph (~100 kph) by the National Hurricane Center. TRMM captured this latest image of Chantal at 02:37 UTC 9 July 2013 (10:37 pm EDT 8 July) as Chantal was approaching the Lesser Antilles. The image shows the horizontal distribution of rain intensity within Chantal. Rain rates in the center of the swath are from the TRMM Precipitation Radar (PR), and those in

The TRMM satellite had a very good view of forming tropical storm Chantal, east-southeast of the Lesser Antilles, on July 8, 0155 UTC. TRMM Microwave (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) rainfall data are shown overlaid on an enhanced infrared image from the Visible and InfraRed Scanner (VIRS). This analysis shows that the most intense rain was falling at a rate of over 115.5 mm/hr (~4.5 inches) near Chantal's center of circulation. This simulated 3-D view, looking from the west, uses TRMM's Precipitation Radar (PR) instrument to show the very powerful storms near Chantal's center of circulation