Satellite sees Tropical Storm Alvin's life end quickly

The first tropical storm of the Eastern Pacific hurricane season was short-lived. Satellite imagery revealed that Tropical Storm Alvin became a remnant low pressure area 36 hours after it was named.

NASA's GOES Project created an image of Alvin's remnants using infrared data from NOAA's GOES-15 satellite on May 17 at 1200 UTC (8 a.m. EDT). NASA's GOES Project is located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md. Alvin became a named tropical storm on May 15 at 5 p.m. EDT and weakened into a trough (elongated area) of low pressure by 5 a.m. EDT on May 17.

The GOES-15 satellite image showed that the system has become elongated and did not have a well-defined center. The National Hurricane Center also noted that Alvin's remnant low pressure area had become further embedded within the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone and is no longer a tropical cyclone.

The Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone is a broad area of low atmospheric pressure located in the equatorial region where the northeasterly and southeasterly trade winds converge, extending approximately 10° north and south of the equator.

At 5 a.m. EDT, May 17, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued its final advisory on Alvin and does not expect regeneration because of strong wind shear affecting the low pressure area. Alvin's last location was near 10.3 north and 112.0 west, about 790 miles (1,275 km) southwest of Manzanillo, Mexico. Maximum sustained winds at that time were near 35 mph (55 kph) and weakening quickly. Alvin's remnants were moving to the west-northwest at 13 mph (20 kph), and the minimum central pressure was near 1007 millibars. The NHC expects Alvin's winds should gradually diminish and is not expected to regenerate.