The thirteenth tropical cyclone of the northwestern Pacific Ocean typhoon season has formed and NASA's Terra satellite obtained a visible-light image of the storm revealing that it's already battling wind shear.
On Aug. 1 the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible-light image of newly formed Tropical Depression 13W in the Northwestern Pacific Ocean. The storm appeared to be affected by vertical wind shear as a large area of clouds and showers were southeast of the center.
At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC) on August 1, Tropical Depression 13W's maximum sustained winds were near 30 knots (34.5 mph/55.5 kph). The storm was centered near 25.4 degrees north latitude and 164.1 degrees east longitude. That's about 398 nautical miles north-northwest of Wake Island.
13W is expected to turn from moving southeast to moving in a north-northwesterly direction. The system will intensify to tropical storm status before becoming extra-tropical.
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By Rob Gutro
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center