Image:ETS Florence 2006.jpg

Hurricane Florence was the sixth named storm of the 2006 Atlantic Hurricane Season. Florence started as a tropical depression north and east of the South American coast, and since forming on September 3, it has grown in power and size only very gradually. By September 11, 2006, it had become a Category One hurricane. The hurricane brought powerful winds, rain, and strong storm-generated surf to Bermuda as it passed as close as 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the island, according to Reuters. By September 15, Florence had travelled well to the north, brings strong storm surge to the Canadian coast, and travelling far enough north to be classified as an extra-tropical storm.

This photo-like image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite on September 14, 2006, at 9:50 a.m. local time (13:50 UTC). Florence at the time of this image was a large spiral open swirl spread over a wide area of the northern Atlantic Ocean. Florence had sustained winds of around 100 kilometers per hour (65 miles per hour) at the time this satellite image was acquired, according to the The University of Hawaii’s Tropical Storm information center.

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/NaturalHazards/natural_hazards_v2.php3?img_id=13865

2006-09-14

NASA image created by Jesse Allen, Earth Observatory, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team.