Tropical Storm Fay approaches hurricane intensity
10-minute Full Disk scan GOES-19 (GOES-East) Infrared Window images (above) showed the evolution of Tropical Storm Fay in the East Atlantic Ocean on 20 September 2026. As of 0300 UTC on 21 September — the last image of the animation — NHC rated Fay’s wind speed at 60 knots (just 4 knots below Category 1 Hurricane intensity). GLM Flash Points indicated the presence of intermittent lightning activity within areas of deep convection.
A 2238 UTC overpass of Metop-C provided a swath of ASCAT winds – which had velocities as high as 53 knots (below).
Fay was becoming embedded within an environment of unfavorably-high northwesterly deep-layer wind shear, as shown below (sourced from the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones site).
As a result of increasingly-unfavorable wind shear, the low-level circulation center eventually became exposed as it was displaced to the west and northwest of Fay’s deep convection (below).