June 15, 2019 - Tropical Cyclone Vayu

Tropical Cyclone Vayu

On June 14, 2019, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Terra satellite showed Tropical Cyclone Vayu still lingering near the northwestern coast of India, and its cloud-filled eye remained offshore of the Gujarat coast. The well-organized banding wrapped into a cloud-filled ragged eye.

While rain bands stretch over the coast of India, the storm took a hard turn to the west, avoiding landfall, but the storm will still bring soaking rain to the northwestern part of the country and possibly landfall later in the week. According to Accuweather on June 14, a preliminary report of a gust to 71 mph (114 km/h) at Dhamrej on the night of June 13. The Times of India reported tree damage in Gujarat with power cut to 560 villages.

At 5 a.m. EDT (0900 UTC), the Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) reported that Tropical Cyclone Vayu was located near 20.8 degrees north latitude and 68/0 east longitude. That is 248 nautical miles south-southeast of Karachi, Pakistan. Vayu has turned to the west-southwest. Maximum sustained winds had dropped to 85 knots (98 mph/157 km/h) and the storm is forecast to continue weakening.

The JTWC has forecast Vayu to curve back to the northeast and make landfall along the northwestern India/Pakistan border on June 17.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 6/14/2019
Resolutions: 1km (737.4 KB), 500m (2.2 MB), 250m (5.7 MB)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC