From July 11 to July 18, 2010, Conson varied in strength from a typhoon to a tropical depression. By the time the storm approached Vietnam on July 17, Conson had killed at least two people in China, and killed at least 68 people and left 84 more missing in the Philippines, according to ReliefWeb. CNN reported that Conson arrived on the heels of already severe flooding in southern China.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image on July 17, 2010. The most intense clouds appear east and west of Hainan. The thick cloud mass over the Gulf of Tongking extends southwestward over parts of Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Thinner clouds, and clouds mixed with patches of clear sky, appear north, south, and east of the thickest cloud banks.
After making landfall in Vietnam, Conson was downgraded to a tropical depression.
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Michon Scott.