Tropical Storm Rick joins an elite late-season storm group

The twenty-first tropical depression of the Eastern Pacific Ocean season strengthened into a tropical storm on Nov. 19 and was renamed Tropical Storm Rick bringing the storm into a small elite group of late-season storms. NOAA's GOES-West satellite provided an early daylight image of the storm that showed it had become more organized since it formed on Nov 18.

On Nov. 19 Rick joined an elite group of tropical cyclones. The National Hurricane Center noted that only three tropical storms have formed later than this calendar date in the eastern North Pacific since reliable records began in the early 1970s.

On Nov. 19 at 1500 UTC (10:00 a.m. EST), the NOAA's GOES-West satellite saw the Tropical Storm southwest of the western Mexican coast. National Hurricane Center forecaster Kimberlain said "First-light (GOES-West) visible imagery indicates that the low-level center is underneath a circular mass of deep convection, and there has been an increase in banding features and their associated curvature. The increase in organization could be a sign of some decrease of the southeasterly shear that has been affecting the cyclone."

At the time of the GOES-West image, the center of Tropical Storm Rick was located near latitude 14.7 North, longitude 105.8 West. That puts the center about 315 miles (505 km) south-southwest of Manzanillo Mexico. There are no coastal watches or warnings in effect.

Rick was moving toward the north near 7 mph (11 kph) and the National Hurricane Center expects Rick to turn toward the northwest then west-northwest by Friday, Nov. 20. The estimated minimum central pressure is 1002 millibars.Maximum sustained winds have increased to near 40 mph (65 kph) with higher gusts. Some strengthening is forecast during the next day or two.

For updated forecasts, visit: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov.