How did Tropical Cyclone Fani Looked From a Larger Global View Perspective? (Imagery credit: NASA GPM)

From the @NASA satellite mission I served as Deputy Project Scientist for awhile @NASAGoddard. GPM, Last 7 days of global precipitation including the #CycloneFani (up to May 1st)....You can see a lot of interesting features as you study it carefully cc @NASARain pic.twitter.com/7Y75unCrVX

— Marshall Shepherd (@DrShepherd2013) May 3, 2019

DISCUSSION: There is absolutely no debate that Tropical Cyclone Fani’s recent period of robust intensification ahead of its landfall in eastern India “turned many heads.” In the days leading up to its eventual landfall, Tropical Cyclone Fani was not all that organized and symmetric which is a key aspect of tropical cyclones which one would typically look for when it comes to an intensifying or a rapidly intensifying system. Having said that, when it comes to observing tropical cyclones in the day leading up to a given landfall, it can be interesting to view a given tropical cyclone from a more global perspective.
 
One such example of how atmospheric and climate scientists can and will view tropical cyclones and other atmospheric phenomena from around the world is by way of the Global Precipitation Mission (or GPM). The Global Precipitation Mission is a global initiative where several international satellite agencies have come together and joined respective forces to create a global network. This global satellite coverage network operates in such a way that the collective satellites contribute to a global picture of all the atmospheric phenomena from around the world are viewed together. In the brief clip attached above, you can see how over the past 7 days, there was one particular weather event which dominated the global picture over in the Bay of Bengal. That particular event was Tropical Cyclone Fani which appears to fill up most of the Bay of Bengal as it became increasingly more organized with time.
 
If nothing else, this particular tropical cyclone goes to show that even if a given tropical cyclone does not appear to have it “all together”, that is by no means any reason to believe that a storm cannot get itself organized under the right environmental conditions. Moreover, when there is activity of any capacity, it is always imperative to remain aware and fully cognisant of the system’s presence and to never assume anything.
 
To learn more about other weather observational perspectives on higher-impact events occurring around the world, be sure to click here!

©2019 Meteorologist Jordan Rabinowitz