Tropical Storm Sarika formed east of the Philippines on Thursday.\u00a0 At 11:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday the center of Tropical Storm Sarika was located at latitude 13.8\u00b0N and longitude 127.0\u00b0W which put it about 425 miles (685 km) east of Manila, Philippines.\u00a0 Sarika was moving toward the west at 11 m.p.h. (18 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 50 m.p.h. (80 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 65 m.p.h. (105 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 997 mb.<\/p>\n
The circulation of Tropical Storm Sarika is still organizing.\u00a0 Most of the thunderstorms are occurring in a broad rainband that curls around the western and southern sides of the circulation.\u00a0 There are a few thunderstorms in thinner rainbands in the eastern half of the circulation.\u00a0 More thunderstorms are developing closer to the center of circulation.\u00a0 Those thunderstorms are beginning to produce upper level divergence which is pumping out mass.\u00a0 As the mass is removed, the pressure decreases and the wind speeds increase.<\/p>\n
Tropical Storm Sarika is moving through an environment that is generally favorable for intensification.\u00a0 It is moving over water where the Sea Surface Temperature is near 30\u00b0C.\u00a0 An upper level ridge to the north of Sarika is producing easterly winds which are blowing across the top of the tropical storm.\u00a0 The vertical wind shear may account for the asymmetrical distribution of thunderstorms, but it is not strong enough to prevent Sarika from intensifying.\u00a0 The vertical wind shear could slow the rate of intensification while the core of the circulation becomes better organized.\u00a0 Sarika could strengthen into a typhoon with the next 24 to 36 hours.<\/p>\n
A subtropical ridge north of Sarika is steering the tropical storm toward the west and that general motion is expected to continue for another 12 to 24 hours.\u00a0 In a day or so Tropical Storm Sarika is forecast to turn more toward the west-northwest.\u00a0 On its anticipated track Tropical Storm Sarika could be near Catanduanes Island in about 24 hours.\u00a0 Sarika could be near Central Luzon in about 48 hours.<\/p>\n
Tropical Storm Sarika is expected to intensify into a typhoon.\u00a0 It could bring strong winds and very heavy rain to parts of the northern Philippines.\u00a0 The heavy rain could cause flash floods and mudslides.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tropical Storm Sarika formed east of the Philippines on Thursday.\u00a0 At 11:00 p.m. EDT on Thursday the center of Tropical Storm Sarika was located at latitude 13.8\u00b0N and longitude 127.0\u00b0W which put it about 425 miles (685 km) east of Manila, Philippines.\u00a0 Sarika was moving toward the west at 11 m.p.h. (18 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum […]<\/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":[239,43,173,103,42,96,554,63,240],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3266"}],"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=3266"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3267,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3266\/revisions\/3267"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}