Olga, the 15th named storm of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, began as a subtropical storm. The system reached tropical storm intensity as the center passed down the center of Hispaniola. Though not powerful, Olga unleashed intense rains on the island. As of December 14, at least 38 people across the region had died from storm-related flooding, said news reports. Most deaths occurred in the central Dominican Republic when the Yaque River crested its banks and flooded several villages after water was released from a dam that was threatening to collapse.
This image shows rainfall totals over the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Puerto Rico as recorded by the Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis (MPA) between December 6 and December 13, 2007. The bulk of the rain fell over the Dominican Republic, with totals approaching 100 millimeters (about 4 inches, shown in darker orange). These totals are not nearly as high as those from Tropical Storm Noel, which dumped up to 300 mm (about 12 inches) on the same part of the island in late October 2007.
The Multi-satellite Precipitation Analysis is based in part on data collected by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite, which, as of November 2007, has been in service for 10 years. TRMM’s primary mission is measuring rainfall in the tropics using a combination of passive microwave and active radar sensors. TRMM is a joint mission between NASA and the Japanese space agency, JAXA.
Image produced by Hal Pierce (SSAI/NASA GSFC) and caption by Steve Lang (SSAI/NASA GSFC).
