"Nadine" Accelerating East in the Open Atlantic; Tropical Wave Approaching E. Caribbean....
"Nadine" has made the turn sharply east over the open Central Atlantic & is accelerating to the east. The storm will slow the next few days & gradually turn more northeast again -- no impact on any land areas.
A tropical wave continues to chug west & will be soon entering the E. Caribbean. The stretched (N/NE-S/SW) out disturbance is showing few signs of organization but will bring heavier showers & gusty squalls to the Lesser Antilles & eventually Puerto Rico as the wave moves west/northwest. Forecast models generally show little development with this wave. If it can avoid the strong upper level trough moving into the Eastern U.S. the next few days then eventual development would be possible in the W. Caribbean &/or Gulf.
There's another wave at a lower latitude that seems to be possibly be involved with the ITCZ in the Central Atlantic. This wave will have to be watched as it heads west & eventually W/NW for possible long term development.
And in the W. Pacific, once super typhoon Sanba has put Okinawa on alert. The now weakening but still formidable storm will hit S. Korea Mon. Images below are from the TMMM satellite (credit to:SSAI/NASA, Hal Pierce) ....click ** here ** for more. From NASA:
The center of Super Typhoon Sanba is current forecast to come very close to Okinawa on Sept. 15. On Sept. 14 at 12 p.m. EDT, Kadena Air Base was on TCCOR 2 alert, which means sustained winds of 50 knots (58 mph) or greater are anticipated within 24 hours.
NASA's TRMM satellite examined super soaking Super Typhoon Sanba and powerful hot towering thunderstorms around its center and rain falling at a rate as high as three inches per hour.
TRMM PR data was used to create a 3-D view from the west of Super Typhoon Sanba. The inner eye wall and older eye both extended to heights above 9 miles), that included hot towers.
A "hot tower" is a tall cumulonimbus (rain) cloud. These towers are called "hot" because they rise to such altitude due to the large amount of latent heat. Water vapor releases this latent heat as it condenses into liquid.
On Sept. 14 at 1500 UTC (11 a.m. EDT) Super Typhoon Sanba's maximum sustained winds were near 135 knots (155 mph/250 kmh). It was located approximately 380 nautical miles (437 miles/704 km) south-southeast of Kadena Airbase, Okinawa, Japan near 20.7 north latitude and 129.6 east longitude. Sanba was moving to the north at 11 knots (12.6 mph/20.3 kmh), and generating extremely rough seas with wave heights up to 53 feet (16.1 kmh).
Satellite imagery on Sept. 14 showed Sanba was tightly wrapped and still has an eye about 13 nautical miles wide. Both TRMM and infrared data from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite shows that most of the showers and thunderstorms associated with Sanba are over the southern semi-circle, and has weakened.
The forecasters at the Joint Typhoon Warning Center noted that wind shear is expected to continue strengthening as Sanba travels into the higher latitudes, which will help weaken the storm. Forecasters expect Sanba to make landfall on the south coast of South Korea on Sept. 17, Monday.
