NASA sees extra-tropical storm Saola moving by Japan

Former Tropical Storm Saola transitioned into an extra-tropical storm on Oct. 29 as it tracked southeast of the big island of Japan. NASA's Terra Satellite captured a visible image of the storm after it moved north of Hokkaido, Japan on Oct. 30 and continued to weaken. The final advisory on the storm was issued on Oct. 29.

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer or MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite provided a visible image of Extra-Tropical Storm Saola on Oct. 30. The image showed Saola was east of Japan's northern island of Hokkaido. Clouds from the extra-tropical storm stretched into the Sea of Okhotsk, blanketed Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula, and into the northwestern Pacific Ocean.

The Kamchatka Peninsula is a 776 mile (1,250-kilometer) long peninsula in the Russian far east. It lies between the Pacific Ocean to the east and the Sea of Okhotsk to the west.

The Joint Typhoon Warning Center issued the final bulletin on Saola at 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC) on Oct. 29. At that time Saola was located near 34.4 degrees north latitude and 140.4 degrees east longitude. That's about Location 64 miles south-southeast of Yokosuka, Japan. Saola was moving east-northeast at 42knots (48.3 mph/77.7 kph) and had maximum sustained winds near 55 knots (63 mph/102 kph).

Extra-Tropical Storm Saola is moving very rapidly east-northeast and is expected to weaken.