Story by NASA’s Earth Observatory/Goddard Space Flight Center

This NASA infrared AIRS satellite image shows Hilda's clouds (depicted in purple and blue) on August 24 at 7:41 a.m. EDT indicating high, cold clouds and strong thunderstorms. Credit: NASA/JPL, Ed Olsen

Tropical Storm Hilda formed over the weekend and is continuing to strengthen, as is evident in infrared satellite imagery from NASA’s Aqua satellite.

On Monday, August 24, Hilda’s maximum sustained winds were near 65 mph and she’s expected to intensify into a hurricane over the next day as she starts tracking south of Hawaii. At 5 a.m. Hawaii Local Time Hilda’s center was 740 miles east-southeast of Hilo, Hawaii and about 950 miles east-southeast of Honolulu. That’s near 14.4 north and 145.4 west. She is moving west near 13 mph, and will continue to do so over the next several days. Minimum central pressure is estimated near 999 millibars.

The Aqua satellite also flew over Tropical Storm Hilda early today, and provided valuable data on her cloud top temperatures indicating very cold high thunderstorms near the core of Hilda. That means that Hilda is strengthening. Cloud-top temperatures are important because they tell forecasters how high thunderstorms are, and the higher the thunderstorm, the more powerful it is.

In infrared imagery, NASA’s false-colored purple clouds are as cold as or colder than 220 Kelvin or minus 63 degrees Fahrenheit (F). The blue colored clouds are about 240 Kelvin, or minus 27F. Today’s satellite imagery indicated cloud top temperatures colder than minus 63F.

Hilda is expected to continue on a westward track over the next couple of days and stay south of Hawaii through the week, kicking up surf on the south facing beaches there.