NASA spots Tropical Cyclone 02W's remnants in South China Sea
The remnants of former Tropical Depression 02W still lingered in the South China Sea when NASA's Terra satellite passed overhead on April 17.
Tropical Depression 02W made landfall along the east coast of the eastern Visayas around 1500 UTC/11 a.m. EST) on Saturday, April 15, 2017. At 0900 UTC (5 a.m. EST) Tropical Depression 02W had maximum sustained winds near 25 knots as it neared the eastern Philippines. At that time, the Joint Typhoon Warning Center issued their final bulletin on the storm and said that satellite imagery showed weak development of thunderstorms and that bands of thunderstorms were diminishing. It was centered near 11.4 degrees north latitude and 125.9 degrees east longitude, about 373 nautical miles east-southeast of Manila, Philippines, was moving to the west-northwest and moved in that direction over the central Philippines
The depression weakened to a remnant low pressure area as it passed over Eastern Visayas, Bikol and Mimiropa regions of the Philippines and exited into the South China Sea.
On Monday, April 17, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured a visible image of the clouds associated with the remnant low pressure area. The image showed an elongated area of clouds over the South China Sea.
On April 17 at 1700 UTC (1 p.m. EST) the center of the remnant low pressure area was located near 14.9 degrees north latitude and 116.9 degrees east longitude, about 230 nautical miles west of Manila, Philippines. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) noted that it has a compact closed circulation moving to the west.
JTWC noted that wind shear and drier air are expected to prevent re-intensification.
Provided by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
