GONU BRINGS HEAVY RAINS, FLOODING TO OMAN AND IRAN
Despite weakening from a
once powerful Category 5 cyclone with sustained winds of
160 mph to a much weaker Category 1 storm as it neared the Arabian Peninsula,
Gona is still being blamed for at least 28 fatalities in the region mostly as a
result of flooding. In Oman's capital city of Muscat, torrential rains turned
streets into rivers of water in this normally arid region. In addition to the
25 confirmed fatalities, 26 persons are still missing in Oman. Iran reported
3 deaths as a result of the storm.
The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission or TRMM satellite came into service in
November of 1997 with the primary mission of measuring rainfall in the Tropics
using a combination of passive microwave and active radar sensors. The TRMM-
based, near-real time Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (MPA) at the NASA
Goddard Space Flight Center monitors rainfall over the global Tropics. MPA
rainfall totals are shown here for the period 31 May to 7 June 2007 for the
Gulf of Oman and the surrounding region. Although the center of Gonu never
made landfall in Oman, it came very close to the northeast coastline where it
dumped upwards of 200 mm of rain (~8 inches, shown in dark purple). The
capital region of Muscat is right on the coast on the northwest edge of the
highest amounts. Despite further weakening as it traversed the Gulf of Oman
between Oman and southern Iran, Gonu dumped substantial amounts of rain in
southern Iran (broad orange area indicating between 3 and 5 inches) with
locally heavy amounts of up to 200 mm (~8 inches).

Click to see a PR SLICE QUICKTIME animation (3.2MB)
TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency JAXA.
Images produced by Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC) and
caption by Steve Lang (SSAI/NASA GSFC).