Day 149: Tropical Storm Agatha

Posted by pmarsh on 29 May 2010 | 0 comments

The Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPAC) has had its first named tropical system of the 2010 Hurricane Season. Tropical Storm Agatha was named, made landfall, and has weakened below tropical storm intensity throughout the course of today. Peak winds topped out at 45mph earlier today, before weakening after landfall. Tonight’s images are of Tropical Storm Agatha.

As a review:

Tropical Depression (TD) has winds less than 39 mph.
Tropical Storm (TS) has winds between 39 mph and 74 mph.
Category 1 Hurricane has winds between 74 mph and 95 mph.
Category 2 Hurricane has winds between 96 mph and 110 mph.
Category 3 Hurricane has winds between 111 mph and 130 mph.
Category 4 Hurricane has winds between 131 mph and 155 mph.
Category 5 Hurricane has winds greater than 155 mph.

Please note that Category 3 hurricanes and stronger are considered “Major Hurricanes”.

As for VORTEX II, today they attempted to target storms in the Thedford, Nebraska area. (You can see the tops of the Nebraska thunderstorms at the very top of tonight’s images!) Although storms did develop, the storms managed to remain in an area devoid of a enough roads for a possible intercept. Thus, the armada remained close to storms but were unable to collect much data. Tomorrow doesn’t look any better for the armada so they have opted to rest, archive data, and do mission summaries/reviews.

Here’s to hoping Monday provides more opportunities for data collection.