Tropical Storm Mekkhala developed over the Western North Pacific Ocean north of Yap on Friday.\u00a0 At 5:00 p.m. EDT on Friday the center of Tropical Storm Mekkhala was located at latitude 14.2\u00b0N and longitude 138.0\u00b0E which put the center about 315 miles (510 km) north of Yap. Mekkhala was moving toward the west-northwest at 16 m.p.h. (26 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 45 m.p.h. (75 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 60 m.p.h. (95 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 1000 mb.<\/p>\n
Former Tropical Depression 07W strengthened north of Yap on Friday and the Japan Meteorological Agency designated it as Tropical Storm Mekkhala.<\/p>\n
More thunderstorms developed near the center of Tropical Storm Mekkhala on Friday.\u00a0 More thunderstorms also formed in the bands revolving around the center of Mekkhala’s circulation.\u00a0 Storms near the center of Mekkhala generated more upper level divergence that pumped mass away from the tropical storm.\u00a0 The removal of more mass caused the surface pressure to decrease.<\/p>\n
Despite the fact that Tropical Storm Mekkhala strengthened on Friday, the distribution of wind speeds was very asymmetrical.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out 115 miles (185 km) in the northern side of Mekkhala’s circulation.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out only 25 miles (40 km) in the southern side of Tropical Storm Mekkhala.<\/p>\n
Tropical Storm Mekkhala will move through an environment favorable for intensification during the next 24 hours.\u00a0 Mekkhala will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperatures are near 30\u00b0C.\u00a0 It will move under the southern part of an upper level ridge that is southwest of Japan.\u00a0 The upper level ridge will produce northeasterly winds that will blow toward the top of Mekkhala’s circulation.\u00a0 Those winds will cause some vertical wind shear.\u00a0 The vertical wind shear will inhibit intensification, but the wind shear will not be enough to prevent intensification.\u00a0 Tropical Storm Mekhala will intensify during the next 24 hours.\u00a0 Mekkhala is likely to strengthen to a typhoon during the weekend.<\/p>\n
Tropical Storm Mekkhala will move around the southwestern part of a high pressure system over the Western North Pacific Ocean.\u00a0 The high pressure system will steer Mekkhala toward the west-northwest during the next 24 hours.\u00a0 On its anticipated track, Tropical Storm Mekkhala will move away from Yap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tropical Storm Mekkhala developed over the Western North Pacific Ocean north of Yap on Friday.\u00a0 At 5:00 p.m. EDT on Friday the center of Tropical Storm Mekkhala was located at latitude 14.2\u00b0N and longitude 138.0\u00b0E which put the center about 315 miles (510 km) north of Yap. Mekkhala was moving toward the west-northwest at 16 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[453,2130,4168,454,66],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24554"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=24554"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24554\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24555,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24554\/revisions\/24555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}