Image generaged by Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC) and caption by Steve Lang
Melor became a tropical depression a few hundred miles east of the central
Philippines on October 30, 2003. Moving towards the northwest,
Melor strengthened into a minimal typhoon on October 31, just east of the
Northern Philippine island of Luzon. Melor crossed over the northern part
of Luzon with winds estimated at up to 85 miles per hour. At least four people lost
their lives as a result of flooding due to the storm.
The TRMM-based, near-real time Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (MPA) at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center shows the rainfall totals associated with Melor’s passage. A wide area of 6 inch plus rainfall (red areas) occurred
over the northeastern part of the island along the coastline and east of
the Cordillera Central mountains. After crossing the northern coastline,
Melor headed north and weakened into a tropical storm before brushing the
southeast coastline of Taiwan. White crosses show the track of Melor with
tropical storm and typhoon symbols denoting the 00Z positions. Rainfall accumulations
are for the period October 30 to November 4, 2003.
TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency NASDA.
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This image originally appeared on the Earth Observatory. Click here to view the full, original record.