Tropical storm Phet intensified over the last 24 hours and has grown into a full-blown and powerful cyclone. NASA's Terra satellite imagery of the storm from earlier today also revealed an eye in the storm, confirming the intensification. Residents of coastal Oman are bracing for strong winds, heavy rainfall and rough surf today and tomorrow.

NASA's Terra satellite flew over Tropical Cyclone Phet at 06:55 UTC (2:55 a.m. EDT or 6:55 p.m. local time/Pakistan). The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instrument, or MODIS captured a visible image of Phet at that time, and noticed an eye in the center of the storm's circulation. Satellite imagery indicates the eye is about 12 kilometers (7 miles) in diameter.

At 0900 UTC (9 p.m. local time/Pakistan), Tropical Cyclone Phet had maximum sustained winds near 110 knots (126 mph) with gusts to 135 knots (155 mph). It is now considered a major cyclone (equivalent to a Category 3 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale). It is about 560 miles southwest of Karachi, Pakistan, near 17.7 North and 60.6 East.

It is moving to the northwest near 5 knots (6 mph). Cyclone-force winds extend to 35 miles from the storm's center, while tropical-storm force winds extend as far as 75 miles from the center. It is creating very rough seas on the Arabian Sea with waves as high as 18 feet.

Cyclone Phet is a threat to coastal Oman, India (Gujarat), and Pakistan (Sindh and Balochistan). The Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) has forecast the storm to continue intensifying and to approach Oman on its way to a weekend landfall in southeastern Pakistan between Karachi and to the border with India.

RSMC New Delhi warns that gale force winds will be experienced along the Oman coast today and tomorrow as Phet continues to move through the Arabian Sea.

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Like the Writer, Agatha Was a Brief Mystery
Tropical Storm Agatha made landfall this weekend in El Salvador and Guatemala, and crossed into the western Caribbean. Like Agatha Christie, the famous mystery writer, Agatha was somewhat of a forecasting mystery.

NASA's infrared satellite data showed a strong area of thunderstorms in the middle of Agatha's remnants on June 1, but they have continued to erode and the mystery of possible regeneration has been solved as the National Hurricane Center gives the chance of reorganization "near zero percent."

Agatha's remnants swept into the Western Caribbean Sea and is now numbered "System 91L." At 1800 UTC (12 p.m. EDT) on June 1, the center was located east of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, near 19.1 North and 85.9 West.

On Wednesday, June 2 at 1231 UTC (8:31 a.m. EDT) satellite imagery from the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite called GOES-13 showed three areas of concentrated scattered clouds in the Caribbean. One concentrated area of cloudiness was near northwestern Cuba, a larger area of cloudiness southeast of Florida, and in the Gulf of Mexico, one area of clouds south of Louisiana. None of these areas showed any signs of development.

Looking back at May 28, when Tropical Storm Agatha was about to make landfall, NASA and the Japanese Space Agency's Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite captured rainfall rates and cloud heights of the storm. That data revealed hot towers (very strong thunderstorms around the center of circulation), higher than 16 kilometers (10 miles) with very heavy rainfall (more than 2 inches per hour) in red areas as it was making landfall.

Agatha's remnants, or the area that is now called "91L" in the Caribbean Sea doesn't appear have much of a chance of powering up to the kind of storm it was in the Eastern Pacific, and it is not a mystery anymore.