Typhoon Morakot began development as a tropical depression on August 03 at 18Z located southwest of Taiwan at approximately 21.2 N, 135.9 E. The storm hit Taiwan on August 7th and seemed to slightly stall over a two-day period, dumping over 80 inches of rain. On August 08, the highest amount of rainfall ever for Taiwan was recorded at 55 inches. These torrential rains have caused massive flooding and mudslides, one occurring overnight which could have a possible death toll of more than 600. A newly development storm, Etau, occurred over the weekend (August 08-09) but seems to have trouble gaining strength heading towards Japan.

Typhoon Morakot animation and Taiwan image were created using the TRMM 3B42RT data of the Accumulated Rainfall parameter using the GES DISC TRMM Online Visualization and Analysis System (TOVAS)(http://disc2.nascom.nasa.gov/Giovanni/tovas/), which contains TRMM rainfall products, near-real-time 3-hourly, Multi-Satellite Precipitation Analysis, and rainfall ground observation data. An infrared images was created using the Merged IR data, which is a globally-merged (60N-60S) pixel-resolution IR brightness temperature data set(equivalent blackbody temps), merged from all available geostationary satellites (GOES-8/10, METEOSAT-7/5 & GMS). The data is available by ftp from the GES DISC (http://disc.sci.gsfc.nasa.gov/data/datapool/TRMM/01_Data_Products/06_Ancillary/01_Global_MERG_IR/index.html). The RGB image is from MODIS Terra on August 07 as the typhoon was over Taiwan.