{"id":72269,"date":"2026-09-20T23:59:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T23:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/?p=72269"},"modified":"2026-09-22T02:02:33","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T02:02:33","slug":"tropical-storm-fay-approaches-hurricane-intensity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/archives\/72269","title":{"rendered":"Tropical Storm Fay approaches hurricane intensity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/09\/260920_g19_ir_Fay.mov\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>10-minute GOES-19 Infrared Window images with overlays of GLM Flash Points and 6-hourly Surface Analyses, from 1030 UTC on 20 September to 0300 UTC on 21 September<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">10-minute Full Disk scan GOES-19 <em>(GOES-East)<\/em> Infrared Window images <strong><em>(above)<\/em><\/strong> showed the evolution of <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhc.noaa.gov\/archive\/2026\/FAY.shtml?\">Tropical Storm Fay<\/a><\/strong> in the East Atlantic Ocean on 20 September 2026. As of 0300 UTC on 21 September &#8212; the last image of the animation &#8212; NHC rated Fay&#8217;s wind speed at <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nhc.noaa.gov\/archive\/2026\/al06\/al062026.discus.007.shtml\">60 knots<\/a><\/strong> (just 4 knots below Category 1 Hurricane intensity). <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goes-r.gov\/spacesegment\/glm.html\">GLM<\/a><\/strong> Flash Points indicated the presence of intermittent lightning activity within areas of deep convection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A 2238 UTC overpass of Metop-C provided a <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/09\/260920_2240z_g19_ir_ascat_Fay.png\">swath of ASCAT winds<\/a><\/strong> &#8211; which had velocities as high as 53 knots <em><strong>(below)<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/09\/260920_2240z_g19_ir_ascat_cursor_sample.png\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/09\/260920_2240z_g19_ir_ascat_cursor_sample.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>GOES-19 Infrared Window image at 2240 UTC on 20 September, with a cursor sample of a Metop-C ASCAT surface wind vector at 2238 UTC [click to enlarge]<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fay was becoming embedded within an environment of unfavorably-high northwesterly <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/tropic.ssec.wisc.edu\/misc\/winds\/info.winds.shr.html\">deep-layer wind shear<\/a><\/strong>, as shown below (sourced from the <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/tropic.ssec.wisc.edu\/\">CIMSS Tropical Cyclones<\/a><\/strong> site).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/09\/260920_g19_ir_0100utcShear_Fay_anim.mp4\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>GOES-19 Infrared Window images with an overlay of contours and streamlines of deep-layer wind shear at 0100 UTC on 21 September<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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&#8217;s deep convection <strong><em>(below)<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video aligncenter\"><video autoplay controls loop muted src=\"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/images\/2026\/09\/260921_g19_ir_Fay.mov\" playsinline><\/video><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>10-minute GOES-19 Infrared Window images, from 0150-1500 UTC on 21 September<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 &#8212; the last image of the animation &#8212; NHC rated Fay&#8217;s wind speed at 60 knots (just 4 knots below Category 1 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":72277,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,159,30,58,25,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-72269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-glm","category-goes-19","category-lightning","category-metop","category-satellite-winds","category-tropical-cyclones"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72269"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72286,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72269\/revisions\/72286"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cimss.ssec.wisc.edu\/satellite-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}