Tropical Storm Mekkhala was nearing the southern Ryukyu Islands on Wednesday night.\u00a0 At 11:00 p.m. EDT on Wednesday the center of Tropical Storm Mekkhala was located at latitude 24.1\u00b0N and longitude 125.6\u00b0E which put the center about 45 miles (75 km) south of Miyakojima, Japan.\u00a0 Mekkhala was moving toward the north-northeast at 13 m.p.h. (21 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 60 m.p.h. (95 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 75 m.p.h. (120 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 986 mb.<\/p>\n
Former Typhoon Mekkhala weakened to a tropical storm as it approached the southern Ryukyu Islands on Wednesday.\u00a0 An upper level ridge over China continued to produce northeasterly winds that blew toward the top of Mekkhala\u2019s circulation.\u00a0 Those winds caused strong vertical wind shear.\u00a0 The strong vertical wind shear caused former Typhoon Mekkhala to weaken to a tropical storm.<\/p>\n
The northeasterly winds in the upper levels also continued to blow the tops off of many of the thunderstorms that tried to form in the northern half of Tropical Storm Mekkhala.\u00a0 A few more thunderstorms did develop near the center of Mekkhala’s circulation.\u00a0 Thunderstorms were also occurring in bands in the southern half of Tropical Storm Mekkhala.\u00a0 Bands in the northern half of Mekkhala still consisted primarily of showers and lower clouds.\u00a0 Storms near the center of Mekkhala generated upper level divergence that pumped mass away to the south and west of the typhoon.\u00a0 However, the removal of mass in the upper levels was less than the convergence of mass in the lower levels of the atmosphere.\u00a0 So, the surface pressure continued to increase on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The size of the circulation around Tropical Storm Mekkhala increased a little on Wednesday.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out 165 miles (265 km) from the center of Mekkhala’s circulation.<\/p>\n
Tropical Storm Mekkhala will move through an environment that will be unfavorable for intensification during the next 24 hours.\u00a0 Mekkhala will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperatures are near 27\u00b0C.\u00a0 However, the upper level ridge over China will continue to cause vertical wind shear.\u00a0 The vertical wind shear may be a little less on Thursday.\u00a0 Tropical Storm Mekkhala could maintain its intensity during the next 24 hours if the vertical wind shear is a little less.<\/p>\n
Tropical Storm Mekkhala will move around the western end of a high pressure system over the Western North Pacific Ocean.\u00a0 The high pressure system will steer Mekkhala toward the northeast during the next 24 hours.\u00a0 On its anticipated track, Tropical Storm Mekkhala will pass over Miyakojima during the next few hours.\u00a0 Mekkhala could be near Okinawa in 12 hours.<\/p>\n
Tropical Storm Mekkhala will bring strong winds and locally heavy rain to the southern Ryukyu Islands including Ishigakijima and Miyakojima.\u00a0 Heavy rain could cause flash floods in some locations.\u00a0 Mekkhala will also bring gusty winds and locally heavy rain to Okinawa.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere over the Western North Pacific Ocean, former Tropical Depression Higos strengthened back to a tropical storm on Wednesday.\u00a0 At 11:00 p.m. EDT on Wednesday the center of Tropical Storm Higos was located at latitude 18.3\u00b0N and longitude 137.1\u00b0E which put the center about 540 miles (870 km) south-southwest of Iwo To.\u00a0 Higos was moving toward the northwest at 14 m.p.h. (22 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 1002 mb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tropical Storm Mekkhala was nearing the southern Ryukyu Islands on Wednesday night.\u00a0 At 11:00 p.m. EDT on Wednesday the center of Tropical Storm Mekkhala was located at latitude 24.1\u00b0N and longitude 125.6\u00b0E which put the center about 45 miles (75 km) south of Miyakojima, Japan.\u00a0 Mekkhala was moving toward the north-northeast at 13 m.p.h. (21 […]<\/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":[453,739,2146,1581,107,44,2130,2988,46,194,2145,4168,454,740],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24591"}],"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=24591"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24591\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24592,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24591\/revisions\/24592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=24591"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=24591"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=24591"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}