NASA sees Tropical Storm Norbert affecting Mexico's west coast

Tropical Storm Norbert has now triggered Tropical Storm Warnings for Mexico's West Coast, and NASA's Terra satellite showed how close it is to land.

On Wednesday, September 3, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) issued a Tropical Storm Warning from La Paz to Santa Fe, Mexico. There is also a Tropical Storm Watch in effect from north of Santa Fe northward to Cabo San Lazaro, Mexico.

he MODIS or Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite took an image of Tropical Storms Norbert in the Eastern Pacific and Dolly in the Gulf of Mexico at 1:30 p.m. EDT on Sept. 2. The image showed Dolly is a much more organized storm than Norbert, and revealed Dolly's strongest, towering thunderstorms around the center of circulation. Norbert is close to the western coast of Mexico, so the country has tropical storms to the east and west. The image was created by the NASA MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.

On September 3 at 8 a.m. EDT (5 a.m. PDT), Norbert's maximum sustained winds remained near 60 mph (95 kph) but strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours. In fact, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) expects Norbert to reach hurricane strength by Thursday, September 4.

The center of Tropical Storm Norbert was located near latitude 19.7 north and longitude 108.3 west. That puts Norbert's center about 245 miles (395 km) south-southeast of the southern tip of Baja California. Norbert is moving toward the west-northwest near 8 mph (13 kph) and this general motion should continue today with a turn toward the northwest expected on Thursday. NHC noted that on the forecast track, Norbert's center is expected to approach the southern tip of the Baja California peninsula on Thursday.

Residents within the Tropical Storm Warning area from La Paz to Santa Fe, Mexico, are expected to experience tropical storm conditions by Thursday night. NHC noted that Norbert is expected to produce rainfall amounts of 2 to 4 inches over Colima and western parts of Michoacan and Jalisco in southwestern Mexico today, September 3. Dangerous swells are also forecast to affect the southwestern coast of Mexico for the next two days, also creating rip currents. Those conditions are expected to spread north into the southern Gulf of California by September 4.