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UPDATE (23 MAY 2008)
TROPICAL CYCLONE NARGIS DEVASTATES BURMA
Powerful Cyclone Nargis made landfall in Burma on the weekend of May 3-4, 2008. NARGIS was the deadliest tropical cyclone to hit Asia since 1991, when 143,000 people in Bangladesh perished from a land-falling cyclone. As of May 23, 2008 the death toll from cyclone NARGIS was estimated to be 134,000. The United Nations estimated that over a million people were made homeless by the cyclone. The day before coming ashore NARGIS intensified to become a powerful category four tropical cyclone with wind speeds estimated at 115 knots (132 mph). NARGIS had weakened to minimal hurricane force with wind speeds of about 70 knots (80 miles per hour) when it was overflown by the TRMM Satellite on May 3, 2008 at 0043 UTC. NARGIS was the the first tropical cyclone of the 2008 North Indian Ocean season.

Quicktime rainfall animation (2.5 mb) MPG rainfall animation (1.7 mb)

Very strong winds and a storm surge as high as 12 feet (3.7 meters) were responsible for much of the devastation with NARGIS. Flooding and mudslides due to heavy rainfall were also a concern as shown in the rainfall analysis above. TRMM rainfall estimates were used to calibrate rainfall from other satellites in this rainfall analysis. 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 from April 27 to May 4, 2008 are shown in relation to the NARGIS track (identified by the storm/cyclone symbols connected by a black line). Rainfall amounts upwards of 400 mm (15.7 Inches) are shown in red over southern Burma.

Heavy rain amounts (from satellites) and flood inundation calculations (from a hydrological model) are updated every three hours globally with the results shown on the "Global Flood and Landslide Monitoring" TRMM web site pages. The image on the right shows flood inundation maps of Burma as tropical cyclone NARGIS moved in from the Bay of Bengal. Click this image to see a April 27 to May 4, 2008 movie of flood inundation estimates with tropical cyclone NARGIS.


Images by Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC) Caption by Hal Pierce(SSAI/NASA GSFC) and Steve Lang (SSAI/NASA GSFC)

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) is a joint mission between NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) designed to monitor and study tropical rainfall.

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Curator: Harold.F.Pierce@nasa.gov
NASA Official: Dr Scott A. Braun
Last Updated: Wednesday May 14, 2008

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