Hurricane Ophelia lived up to its name as it wound haphazardly north along the U.S. Eastern Seaboard during the second week of September 2005. The storm was a still two days away from making landfall when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image at 2:30 p.m. Eastern time on September 13, 2005. At the time, Ophelia had winds of 110 kilometers per hour (70 miles per hour) with stronger gusts. The slow-moving storm is forecast to dump heavy rain on the Outer Banks of North Carolina before turning out to sea on its northeastward course.
The large image provided above has a resolution of 250 meters per pixel. The image is available in additional resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response Team.
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NASA image courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC












