GOES-13 captures 2 major hurricanes: Darby trailing Celia

There are now two major hurricanes in the Eastern Pacific Ocean and they appear to be chasing each other in imagery from the GOES-13 satellite. Hurricane Celia is a Category Five hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale, and Hurricane Darby to Celia's east has just become a Category Three hurricane (a major hurricane).

The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite called GOES-13 captured a visible image of both the Category 5 Hurricane Celia and the Category 3 Hurricane Darby (located to Celia's southeast). In the satellite image from June 25 at 14:45 UTC (10:45 a.m. EDT) Celia had the larger eye of the two hurricanes.

The satellite image was created by NASA's GOES Project, located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. GOES-11 is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

On Friday, June 23, at 11 a.m. EDT, Darby was classified as a major hurricane by the National Hurricane Center (NHC) as it had maximum sustained winds near 115 mph (185 km/hr). Darby was about 245 miles (395 km) south-southwest of Acapulco, Mexico, near 13.6 North and 101.2 West.

Darby was moving west-northwest near 7 mph (11 km/hr), although the NHC expects that to change over the weekend. NHC expects Darby to dip to the south then curve back toward the east by early next week while weakening. Darby's minimum central pressure is near 962 millibars.

Although Darby doesn't pose a threat to any land areas over the weekend, residents of western Mexico, including the Acapulco area, should closely monitor the track of this storm. Based on the National Hurricane Center's forecast track map, Darby could bring the western Mexican coast some rainfall and gusty winds by early next week.