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Hurricane Douglas in the East Pacific Ocean

By Scott Bachmeier •

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-17 (GOES-West) “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images (above) showed the formation of Hurricane Douglas — the first hurricane of the 2020 season in the East Pacific Ocean — on 22 July 2020. Douglas was the 4th latest formation of the first hurricane on record in this basin.

===== 23 July Update =====

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

Douglas intensified to a Category 3 storm during the nighttime hours — 1-minute GOES-17 Visible and Infrared images during the first 4 hours of daylight on 23 July (above) revealed mesovortices within the eye of the hurricane. The coldest cloud-top infrared brightness temperature during this time period was -76.6ºC, associated with an overshooting top within the eyewall just north-northwest of the eye at 1701 UTC (below).

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images at 1701 UTC [click to enlarge]

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images at 1701 UTC [click to enlarge]

A Suomi NPP VIIRS Infrared Window (11.45 µm) image viewed using RealEarth (below) showed Hurricane Douglas at 1035 UTC, about 1.5 hours after it reached Category 3 intensity.

Suomi NPP VIIRS Infrared Window (11.45 µm) image [click to enlarge]

Suomi NPP VIIRS Infrared Window (11.45 µm) image [click to enlarge]

Later in the day, a toggle between NOAA-20 VIIRS True Color RGB and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images (below) showed Douglas at 2233 UTC.

NOAA-20 True Color RGB and VIIRS Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images [click to enlarge]

NOAA-20 VIIRS True Color RGB and Infrared Window (11.45 µm) images [click to enlarge]

===== 24 July Update =====

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

GOES-17 “Red” Visible (0.64 µm) and “Clean” Infrared Window (10.35 µm) images [click to play animation | MP4]

A Mesoscale Domain Sector was once again positioned over Category 3 Hurricane Douglas at 1945 UTC on 24 July — 1-minute GOES-17 Visible and Infrared images are shown above.

Categories: GOES-17, NOAA-20, RealEarth, Red-Green-Blue (RGB) images, Suomi NPP, Tropical cyclones, VIIRS