ASA's TRMM satellite could barely detect circulation or much rainfall on June 24 when it passed overhead. Image by NASA/SSAI, Hal Pierce

By Rob Gutro, NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center

In the early afternoon hours of June 24, the once-hurricane Andres breathed his last in the waters of the eastern Pacific Ocean, and two NASA satellites were there for him. NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission watched as Andres’ rainfall waned, and NASA’s Aqua satellite watched as his clouds became less cold, lower, and weaker.

At 2 p.m. EDT on June 24, the National Hurricane Center wrote Andres’ eulogy: “Andres has been devoid of deep convection near the center for about 12 hours and given its environment the convection is not likely to return. Andres has therefore degenerated into a remnant low and this will be the last advisory on this system.”

He was seen at 2 p.m. EDT near latitude 21.5 north and longitude 107.6 west, or about 145 miles west-northwest of Cabo Corrientes, Mexico.

Just a remnant low pressure area by the late afternoon, what was once Andres turned northward to dissipate into the sunset.

The Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured its last infrared image of Andres’ cold clouds on June 24 at 4:53 a.m. EDT (8:53 UTC) when he was still a tropical depression. The center of the storm appears to be a “comma-like” shape over the ocean.

The satellite revealed that there were no high, strong thunderstorm clouds in Andres, a sign of a very weak system. The false-colored images depict the highest, coldest clouds in purple, and then blue. The storm only had the lower clouds (in blue) that are as cold as 240 degrees Kelvin, or minus 27F.

One and one half hours later, NASA’s Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission barely found circulation and rainfall in Andres when the satellite passed directly overhead on June 24 at 6:22 a.m. EDT (1022 UTC).