image: This visible image on July 13 at 1500 UTC (11 a.m. EDT) from the GOES-11 satellite shows System 96E's circular area of clouds and showers off the southwestern coast of Mexico. view more
Credit: NASA/GOES Project
System 96E appears to be getting organized, and that's apparent in the latest visible imagery from the GOES-11 satellite.
The Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite known as GOES-11 keeps a watchful eye over the western U.S. and that includes the Eastern Pacific Ocean. The latest visible image from the GOES-11 satellite was captured on July 13 at 1500 UTC (11 a.m. EDT) and shows System 96E as a circular area of clouds and showers off the southwestern coast of Mexico. It is located about 300 miles south of Manzanillo, Mexico. That puts its center near 14.3 North and 104.0 West.
GOES is operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. NASA's GOES Project, located at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. creates some of the satellite images from the GOES satellites.
System 96E's showers and thunderstorms are concentrated around its small low pressure center. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) in Miami, Fla. noted today, July 13 that "Environmental conditions are expected to become more conducive for development of this disturbance over the next couple of days as it moves west-northwestward at 10 to 15 mph."
The NHC gives System 96E a 50% chance of becoming a tropical depression in the next 48 hours. If System 96E does become a depression and then strengthens into a tropical storm, it would be named "Estelle."