Hurricane Humberto earned its name as a tropical storm on September 12, 2007. Forecasters expected it to intensify only somewhat before hitting the Texas coastline later that day. However, it surprised them by very rapidly intensifying into a Category One hurricane, coming ashore early on September 13 with peak sustained winds near 140 kilometers per hour (85 miles per hour), according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm headed inland and arced across Louisiana, bringing heavy rains that prompted flood warnings and watches. Humberto was the third hurricane of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this photo-like image of Humberto at 11:55 a.m. local time (16:55 UTC) on September 12, 2007, several hours before the storm came ashore. Hurricane Humberto had the general shape of a hurricane, with spiral arms, cloud bands, and a distinct center. It had not yet developed an obvious eye. In fact, at the time this image was acquired, Humberto had just weakened from a named tropical storm to a tropical depression. Peak winds were around 55 km/hr (35 mph). Instead of continuing to degenerate as forecasters expected, the storm very rapidly re-intensified after this image was taken.
References & Resources
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team.
