NASA MODIS Image of the Day: July 14, 2012 – Hurricane Emilia (05E) in the North Pacific Ocean
The fifth named storm of the 2012 Pacific hurricane season, Emilia quickly became the strongest storm of that season to date, peaking as a Category 4 Hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane Wind Scale on July 10, 2012. On that day, Hurricane Emilia packed maximum one minute sustained wind speeds of 140 mph and a barometric pressure of 945 mbar. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) aboard NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this true-color image of Hurricane Emilia on July 11, at 2120 UTC (11:20 a.m. EDT). At that time, the storm had passed peak power, but still sported a clearly visible eye with high clouds overhead. Emilia passed the day of July 11 vacillating between a strong Category 2 and a weak Category 3 hurricane. By 11 a.m. EDT on July 12, Emilia’s maximum sustained winds had increased again to near 115 mph (185 km/h) and Emilia regained Category 3 status on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. The center of Hurricane Emilia was located near latitude 15.1 north and longitude 121.4 west. That’s about 925 miles (1485 km) southwest of the southern tip of Baja California. Late in the day on July 12, the eye disappeared from satellite imagery and the storm began to weaken. On July 13 at 5 p.m. EDT the National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported that Emilia was located about 1320 miles (2,125 km) west south-west of the southern tip of Baja California and had maximum sustained winds of 50 miles per hour (85 km/h). The storm was heading westward. Tropical Storm Emilia is expected to continue to weaken, and the NHC predicts that that it will become a remnant low by Sunday, July 15.
