Low strengthens into Hubert, making landfall in Madagascar

NASA\'s Aqua satellite captured cold thunderstorm cloud tops of Hubert in this infrared image of March 10 at 5:11 a.m. ET. Hubert\'s western edge is already raining on Madagascar. Credit: NASA JPL, Ed Olsen<br>

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite captured Tropical Storm Hubert's cold thunderstorm cloud tops on March 10 at 5:11 a.m. ET as the western edge of the storm was already raining on eastern Madagascar.

The infrared imagery showed two areas where convection was strong in Hubert: the northeastern and southern quadrants of the storm. It is in those two areas that the highest, coldest thunderstorm tops were revealed by AIRS infrared imagery. Those thunderstorm cloud tops were as cold as -63 Fahrenheit!

Hubert has maximum sustained winds near 39 mph (35 knots) and is moving west-southwest near 6 mph (5 knots). At 10 a.m. ET (1500 UTC) on March 10, Hubert was located about 160 nautical miles southeast of the capital city of Antananarivo, Madagascar near 20.9 South and 48.8 East.

As Hubert continues moving inland over the next two days, forecasts for the capital city and other areas in south central Madagascar will continue to experience periods of moderate to heavy rainfall, and gusty winds.

Animated multispectral satellite imagery showed a loss of central convection as Hubert's center moves closer to a landfall. Once Hubert's center is over land, forecasters expect Hubert will quickly fall below tropical storm strength.

Media Contact

Rob Gutro EurekAlert!

More Information:

http://www.nasa.gov

All latest news from the category: Earth Sciences

Earth Sciences (also referred to as Geosciences), which deals with basic issues surrounding our planet, plays a vital role in the area of energy and raw materials supply.

Earth Sciences comprises subjects such as geology, geography, geological informatics, paleontology, mineralogy, petrography, crystallography, geophysics, geodesy, glaciology, cartography, photogrammetry, meteorology and seismology, early-warning systems, earthquake research and polar research.

Back to home

Comments (0)

Write a comment

Newest articles

Webb captures top of iconic horsehead nebula in unprecedented detail

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has captured the sharpest infrared images to date of a zoomed-in portion of one of the most distinctive objects in our skies, the Horsehead Nebula….

Cost-effective, high-capacity, and cyclable lithium-ion battery cathodes

Charge-recharge cycling of lithium-superrich iron oxide, a cost-effective and high-capacity cathode for new-generation lithium-ion batteries, can be greatly improved by doping with readily available mineral elements. The energy capacity and…

Novel genetic plant regeneration approach

…without the application of phytohormones. Researchers develop a novel plant regeneration approach by modulating the expression of genes that control plant cell differentiation.  For ages now, plants have been the…

Partners & Sponsors