Titli (Northern Indian Ocean) 2018

Oct. 10, 2018 – Satellite Sees Tropical Cyclone Titli Nearing Landfall in Northeastern India

Tropical Cyclone Titli formed late on Oct. 9 and continued to strengthen as it moved through the Northern Indian Ocean toward the Indian continent. NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite provided a visible image of the storm.

Suomi NPP image of Titli
NASA-NOAA’s Suomi NPP satellite passed over the Northern Indian Ocean and captured a visible image of Tropical Cyclone Titli near the northeastern coast of India. Credit: NASA/NOAA/NRL

Suomi NPP passed over Titli on Oct. 10 at 3:42 a.m. EDT (0742 UTC) and the VIIRS instrument provided a visible image. The VIIRS image showed Titli had quickly strengthened and developed an eye surrounded by powerful storms. The Joint Typhoon Warning Center or JTWC noted, “Satellite imagery shows the system continued to rapidly intensify as it maintained an 18 nautical mile wide ragged eye and expansive rain bands that wrapped tighter into the center.

At 11 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC) Tropical Cyclone Title was located near 17.9 degrees north latitude and 85.3 degrees east longitude. That’s about 114 nautical miles Visakhapatnam, India. Titli is moving to the north-northwest and has maximum sustained winds near 90 knots

JTWC forecasters expect that Titli will make landfall over the northeastern coast of India northeast of Visakhapatnam by the end of the day on Oct. 10. By mid-day on Oct. 11 (Eastern Daylight Time) the system is expected to recurve northeastward over land.

By Rob Gutro 
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center