NASA sees shapeless Tropical Depression 14E

Tropical Depression 14E can’t get its act together and still appears as a shapeless, asymmetric mass of clouds and thunderstorms on infrared imagery from NASA’s Aqua satellite.

NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over Tropical Depression 14E on September 2 at 0905 UTC (5:05 a.m. EDT). The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder or AIRS instrument aboard looked at Tropical Depression 14E in infrared light and saw that strong convection (rising air that creates the thunderstorms that make up a tropical cyclone) had increased since Sept. 1, however, southwesterly vertical wind shear is pushing the thunderstorms to the northeast of the center.

At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC) the center of Tropical Depression Fourteen-E was located near latitude 16.2 North and longitude 115.0 West. That’s about 570 miles (915 km) southwest of the southern tip of Baja California.

The depression was moving toward the north near 9 mph (15 kph) and this general motion is expected to continue through the next couple of days. A turn toward the north-northeast with a reduced forward speed is forecast Thursday night.

Maximum sustained winds are near 35 mph (55 kph) and the National Hurricane Center noted that the depression still could become a tropical storm later on September 2. For updated forecasts, visit: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov.