Stretched-out low soaking the Caribbean in GOES-13 satellite imagery

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite called GOES-13 captured an image of this low on June 9 at 1740 UTC (1:40 p.m. EDT) System 94L, and the cloud cover appears centered over eastern Cuba and Jamaica while the outer portion of the low stretches over Hispaniola, Puerto Rico and now south Florida. The elongated low has a minimum central pressure of 1001 millibars and is centered near 20 North and 83 West.

During the afternoon of June 9, Flash Flood warnings were in effect in Puerto Rico for the municipalities of Guaynabo, Carolina and San Juan until 4 p.m. AST. According to the National Weather Service website, “at 1:54 p.m. AST National Weather Service doppler radar indicated that heavy rain continues over the warned area and the Piedras River has overflowed its banks and will flood a number of streets.” An Urban and Small Stream Flood Advisory is also in effect for many municipalities.

The forecast calls for showers and thunderstorms across western and northwestern Puerto Rico over the next few days. These showers will bring heavy rainfall and local flooding is possible. In addition to Puerto Rico, the rainfall is also now affecting the U.S/U.K. Virgin Islands and Leeward Islands north of 16 North and east of 67 West.

The GOES series of satellites are operated by NOAA, and the NASA GOES Project at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. created the image of today's low pressure area. The NASA GOES Project also creates animations of GOES satellite imagery and that can be found at: http://goes.gsfc.nasa.gov/.

System 94L continues to produce disorganized showers and thunderstorms that are bringing heavy rainfall to Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and Cuba. The low is expected to slowly move northeast.