Tuesday, November 26, 2013

NASA TRACKS TROPICAL CYCLONE LEHAR

FROM:  NASA 

Right:  NASA Satellite Tracks Tropical Cyclone Lehar Moving Toward India
On November 25, 2013 at 04:25 UTC/Nov. 24 11:25 p.m. EST, NASA's Terra took a picture of the tropical cyclone as the eastern side of the storm covered the island.  Image Credit: NASA Goddard MODIS. 

Tropical cyclone Lehar, located in the Bay of Bengal, continues to gain intensity while heading toward the same area of India where a much weaker tropical cyclone Helen recently came ashore. NASA's TRMM satellite passed over Lehar and measured rainfall and cloud heights to give scientists an understanding of how the storm is behaving.

NASA's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite called TRMM flew above tropical cyclone Lehar on November 26, 2013 at 0307 UTC/Nov. 25 at 10:07 p.m. EST and captured rainfall data. Rainfall rates occurring in the storm were derived from TRMM's Microwave Imager (TMI) and Precipitation Radar (PR) instruments. That data was taken and overlaid on an enhanced visible/infrared image from TRMM's Visible and InfraRed Scanner (VIRS) at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. to create a total picture of rainfall within the tropical cyclone. The TRMM instruments found that rain was falling at a rate greater than 64 mm/~2.5 inches per hour in Lehar's center and in a band of intense rain wrapping around Lehar's northwestern side. Some strong thunderstorms within Lehar were reaching heights above 15.25 km/~9.5 miles.

Warnings are already in effect in India. Northern Andhra Pradesh and southern Odisha are expected to feel Lehar's effects on Wednesday, November 27, when winds are expected to reach up to 91.7 knots/105.6 mph/170 kph.

At 1500 UTC/10 a.m. EST on November 26, Tropical Cyclone Lehar's maximum sustained winds were near 75 knots/86.1 mph/138.9 kph. Tropical-storm-force winds extend up to 100 nautical miles/115.1 miles/185.2 km from the center of the storm or 200 miles/230.2 miles/370.5 km in diameter. Lehar's center was located about 471 nautical miles southeast of Visakhapatnam, India, near 12.9 north and 88.6 east. Lehar was moving to the west-northwest at 9 knots/10.3 mph/16.6 km.
The Joint Typhoon Warning Center or JTWC predicts that Lehar's sustained wind speeds will reach 95 knots/~109 mph on November 27, 2013 and then decrease to about 85 knots/~98 mph before hitting India's east-central coast.
Text credit:  Harold F. Pierce

SSAI/NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

The Andaman Islands received an unwelcome visitor on November 25 in the form of Tropical Cyclone Lehar. NASA's Terra satellite captured a picture of the visitor as it was making its exit from the islands and into the Bay of Bengal.
Tropical Depression 05B formed off the west coast of the Malay Peninsula on November 23 and strengthened into Tropical Cyclone Lehar as it moved from the Andaman Sea over the Andaman Islands and is now working its way into the Bay of Bengal and toward India. The Andaman Islands are located in the eastern Bay of Bengal. Burma lies north and east of the island group and India lies to the west.
Tropical Cyclone Lehar was over the Andaman and Nicobar Islands at the time NASA's Terra satellite flew overhead and captured a visible image of the storm. On November 25, 2013 at 04:25 UTC/Nov. 24 11:25 p.m. EST, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument that flies aboard Terra took a picture of the tropical cyclone as the eastern side of the storm covered the island. Most of Cyclone Lehar was west of the island in the Bay of Bengal, although the northeastern edge of the storm extended over west-central Burma, bringing clouds to Yangon, capital city of the Yangon region. By November 26, Lehar was bringing rainfall and gusty winds to the region.
At 1500 UTC/10 a.m. EST on November 25, Tropical Cyclone Lehar had maximum sustained winds near 65 knots/74.8 mph/120.4 kph, achieving hurricane-force. It was centered near 12.6 north and 90.6 east, about 550 nautical miles/633 miles/1,019 km southeast of Visakhapatnam, India. Lehar is moving away from Burma and toward the west-northwest at 7 knots/8 mph/12.9 kph. Lehar is generating 20-foot/6.0 meter high seas

Forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center expect that warm water temperatures and low wind shear will assist Lehar in intensifying as it moves in a west-northwesterly direction across the Bay of Bengal. Forecasters expect maximum sustained winds to peak near 100 knots/115.1 mph/185.2 kph before making landfall in eastern India.

As a result warnings are already in effect for India. Lehar's winds area expected to affect Northern Andhra Pradesh and southern Odisha by Wednesday, November 27.

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