RedOrbit - Posted on July 9, 2013
NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center
Tropical Storm Erick has been bringing some rain and rough surf along the southwestern coast of Mexico for a couple of days, and on July 7, 2013, NASA’s TRMM satellite saw two areas of heavy rain within Erick on opposite ends of the storm. Meanwhile, the rainfall from the remnants of nearby Tropical Depression Dalila had dissipated.
When NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite passed over Tropical Storm Erick on Sunday, July 7, it measured rainfall rates as seen from space. TRMM showed that the northeastern quadrant and southwestern quadrants had the strongest areas of rainfall. Small areas in each quadrant showed rainfall rates near 2 inches/50 mm per hour.
The southwestern quadrant was over the open waters of the Eastern Pacific Ocean, while the northeastern quadrant was near the towns of Acponeta and Tecuala, in the northern part of the Mexican state of Nayarit. Both towns are located south of Mazatlan along the southwestern coast of Mexico. TRMM data also showed that a thunderstorm that was generating one of the areas of heavy rainfall was almost 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) high.
