Satellite View of a Stronger Tropical Storm Hilda

NOAA’s GOES-West satellite captured an infrared image of a rounded Tropical Storm Hilda on Aug. 7, 2015, at 8 a.m. EDT. Hawaii is seen in the top left corner. Credits: NASA/NOAA GOES Project

Tropical Storm Hilda is moving from the Eastern Pacific into the Central Pacific Ocean and strengthening as she moves west. A satellite image showed the rounded storm over 1,300 miles east-southeast of Hawaii.

NOAA’s GOES-West satellite captured an infrared image of a rounded Tropical Storm Hilda on August 7 at 8 a.m. EDT. The GOES satellite image shows a rounded storm with the highest thunderstorms in the eastern side of the storm.

National Hurricane Center forecaster Beven noted “The system continues to have a sheared appearance, which is somewhat surprising since the available data show less than 10 knots of vertical wind shear.”

At 800 AM PDT (1500 UTC), the center of Tropical Storm Hilda was located near latitude 12.8 North, longitude 136.7 West. That puts the center of Hilda about 1,310 miles (2,105 km) east-southeast of Hilo, Hawaii, and about 1,890 miles (3,040 km) west-southwest of the southern tip of Baja California, Mexico.

Hilda is moving toward the west near 13 mph (20 kph). Maximum sustained winds are near 60 mph (95 km/h) with higher gusts. Strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours, and Hilda could become a hurricane later tonight, August 7 or on Saturday, August 8.The estimated minimum central pressure is 999 millibars.

Hilda is forecast to turn to the west-northwest and follow a similar track to Guillermo. The storm is expected to reach hurricane force on August 8 before weakening back to a tropical storm on August 11.