Tropical Depression 10W strengthened into Tropical Storm Maria on Wednesday and a Tropical Storm Warning was issued for Guam.\u00a0 At 5:00 a.m. EDT on Wednesday the center of Tropical Storm Maria was located at latitude 12.7\u00b0N and longitude 145.9\u00b0E which put it about 95 miles (155 km) southeast of Guam.\u00a0 Maria was moving toward the north-northwest at 8 m.p.h. (13 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 40 m.p.h. (65 km\/h) and there were wind gusts to 50 m.p.h. (80 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 1000 mb.\u00a0 Tropical Storm Warnings were in effect for Guam and Rota.\u00a0 Tropical Storm Watches were in effect for Saipan and Tinian.<\/p>\n
The center of circulation in former Tropical Depression 10W became more well organized on Wednesday and the Japan Meteorological Agency designated the system as Tropical Storm Maria.\u00a0 The circulation was still increasing in organization.\u00a0 There was a distinct low level center of circulation.\u00a0 Numerous bands of showers and thunderstorms were revolving around the center of circulation.\u00a0 Storms near the center were generating upper level divergence which was pumping mass away from the tropical storm.<\/p>\n
Tropical Storm Maria will move through an environment very favorable for intensification during the next few days.\u00a0 Maria will move over water where the Sea Surface Temperature is near 30\u00b0C.\u00a0 Tropical Storm Maria will move under the western end of an upper level ridge that is between two upper level lows which are east and west of the ridge.\u00a0 The upper level winds will be relatively weak and there will be little vertical wind shear.\u00a0 The combination of the ridge and two upper level lows will increase the upper level divergence.\u00a0 Tropical Storm Maria will continue to strengthen.\u00a0 Maria will become a typhoon later this week.\u00a0 It could intensify rapidly once an eye forms and the inner core is well developed.<\/p>\n
Tropical Storm Maria is moving around the western end of a subtropical ridge which is steering Maria toward the north-northwest.\u00a0 On its anticipated track the center of Tropical Storm Maria will move near Guam and Rota later today.\u00a0 A general motion toward the northwest is forecast for the next several days.\u00a0 Maria could move in the direction of the Ryukyu Islands at the end of the week.<\/p>\n
Tropical Storm Maria will bring gusty winds and heavy rain to the southern Mariana Islands.\u00a0 The strongest winds and heaviest rain will affect Guam and Rota.\u00a0 Gusty winds and heavy rain will also affect Saipan and Tinian.\u00a0 Heavy rain could produce flash floods.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere over the Western North Pacific Ocean, Tropical Storm Prapiroon was moving over the Sea of Japan.\u00a0 Prapiroon was bringing wind and rain to the northern Islands of Japan including Hokkaido and Honshu.\u00a0 At 5:00 a.m. EDT on Wednesday the center of Tropical Storm Prapiroon was located at latitude 39.6\u00b0N and longitude 135.6\u00b0E which put it about 360 miles (585 km) west-southwest of Misawa, Japan.\u00a0 Prapiroon was moving toward the northeast at 25 m.p.h. (40 km\/h).\u00a0 The maximum sustained wind speed was 50 m.p.h. (80 km\/h) and there were winds gusts to 65 m.p.h. (105 km\/h).\u00a0 The minimum surface pressure was 987 mb.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Tropical Depression 10W strengthened into Tropical Storm Maria on Wednesday and a Tropical Storm Warning was issued for Guam.\u00a0 At 5:00 a.m. EDT on Wednesday the center of Tropical Storm Maria was located at latitude 12.7\u00b0N and longitude 145.9\u00b0E which put it about 95 miles (155 km) southeast of Guam.\u00a0 Maria was moving toward the […]<\/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":[459,472,45,462,461,107,44,1064,46,1055,104,105,1062,669,816,106,827,1054,1056,460,473],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6122"}],"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=6122"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6122\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6123,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6122\/revisions\/6123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6122"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6122"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jayhobgood.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6122"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}