NASA MODIS Image of the Day: August 8, 2011 – Tropical Storm Emily (05L) over Haiti and the Dominican Republic
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument aboard NASA’s Terra satellite captured this true-color image on August 4 at 15:30 UTC (11:30 a.
m.
EDT). Hours later, at 2 p.m. EDT, Tropical Storm Emily had maximum sustained winds near 40 mph. It was located about 60 miles (100 km) south-southwest of Port Au Prince, Haiti, near 17.8 North and 72.8 West and was moving to the west-northwest near 10 mph (16 kmh). The storm developed form a strong tropical wave which tracked over the open Atlantic for several days in late July. By 7:30 p.m. EDT on August 1 a closed circulation pattern developed at the center of the system, causing the National Hurricane Center (NHC) to declare the formation of Tropical Storm Emily and issue the first advisory. The storm was never very well organized as it tracked into the Caribbean, but by the morning of August 4, the cloud pattern had become better organized, with a stronger center and cyclonically curved convective bands, suggesting a strengthening storm. Emily then moved over the high terrain of Hispaniola, and rapidly degenerated. By the end of that day, the NHC had downgraded Emily, which remained only as a trough of low pressure. No advisories were issued on August 5. On the evening of August 6, the NHC reported that satellite imagery, surface observations from the Bahamas and data from the US Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft suggested that the remnants of Emily had regenerated into a Tropical Cyclone, albeit a weak and disorganized one. Several hours later Emily had once again begun to degenerate, and by 11:00 p.m. EDT had become a Tropical Depression. After slow but steady weakening, the NHC issued the final advisory at 5:00 p.m. EDT on August 7. Despite the storm’s poor organization, Emily brought heavy rains, strong winds and widespread flooding to some areas in her path. The Lesser Antilles suffered heavy flooding, as did was Puerto Rico, where infrastructural losses were estimated at about $5 million. Mudslides in the Dominican Republic displaced over 7,000 residents and hundreds of homes were damaged in Haiti.
