An eye formed at the center of Tropical Cyclone Donna as it turned southward on Saturday.\u00a0 At 11:00 p.m. EDT on Saturday the center of Tropical Cyclone Donna was located at latitude 14.1\u00b0S and longitude 164.1\u00b0E which put it about 390 miles (625 km) northwest of Port Vila, Vanuatu.\u00a0 Donna was moving toward the south at 5 m.p.h. (8 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 105 m.p.h. (170 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 120 m.p.h. (205 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 965 mb.<\/p>\n
A primary rainband finally wrapped around the center of circulation on Saturday and a circular eye appeared on visible satellite imagery.\u00a0 Additional bands of showers and thunderstorms revolved around the core of Tropical Cyclone Donna.\u00a0 Thunderstorms in the core of the tropical cyclone generated strong upper level divergence which pumped out mass.\u00a0 Winds to hurricane\/typhoon force extended out about 30 miles (50 km) from the center of circulation.\u00a0 Winds to tropical storm force extended out about 185 miles (295 km) from the center.<\/p>\n
The Hurricane Intensity Index (HII) for Tropical Cyclone Donna was 17.8.\u00a0 The Hurricane Size Index (HSI) was 14.4 and the Hurricane Wind Intensity Size Index (HWISI) was 32.2.<\/p>\n
Tropical Cyclone Donna will move through an environment favorable for intensification for another 24 to 36 hours.\u00a0 Donna will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperature is near 29\u00b0C.\u00a0 Donna is moving near the western end of a upper level ridge and there are light northerly winds blowing toward the top of the circulation.\u00a0 There is little vertical wind shear.\u00a0 Tropical Cyclone Donna is likely to intensify during the next 24 hours.\u00a0 The formation of an eye and a more organized inner core could allow Tropical Cyclone Donna to convert energy more efficiently and a period of rapid intensification is possible.\u00a0 Tropical Cyclone Donna is likely to intensify into the equivalent of a major hurricane during the next day or so.<\/p>\n
Tropical Cyclone Donna moved slowly westward as it neared the western end of a subtropical ridge.\u00a0 Donna appears to have reached the end of the ridge and it has turned southward.\u00a0 The tropical cyclone is likely to move south for another 24 hours.\u00a0 A upper level trough will approach Donna from the west in about a day and northwesterly winds in the leading side of the trough are likely to push Donna southeast at a faster speed.\u00a0 The westward movement of Tropical Cyclone Donna during the past several days reduced the potential threat to Vanuatu.\u00a0 However, that same motion increased the potential threat to New Caledonia.<\/p>\n
Rainbands in the eastern half of Tropical Cyclone Donna are likely to bring gusty winds and locally heavy rain to Vanuatu, but the core and strongest winds are likely to stay west of those islands.\u00a0 On its anticipated track Tropical Cyclone Donna could approach New Caledonia in 36 to 48 hours.\u00a0 The core of Tropical Cyclone Donna could pass over the Iles Loyaute.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An eye formed at the center of Tropical Cyclone Donna as it turned southward on Saturday.\u00a0 At 11:00 p.m. EDT on Saturday the center of Tropical Cyclone Donna was located at latitude 14.1\u00b0S and longitude 164.1\u00b0E which put it about 390 miles (625 km) northwest of Port Vila, Vanuatu.\u00a0 Donna was moving toward the south […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76,2],"tags":[347,89,88,92,348,676,90],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3937"}],"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=3937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3938,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3937\/revisions\/3938"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}