Hurricane Nicole headed north toward Bermuda on October 12, 2016. The storm is expected to pass near or over the island as a Category-2 or category-3 storm, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) forecasted.
Hurricanes of this intensity rarely reach Bermuda, experts noted. “Since 1950, 4 hurricanes have tracked within 50 miles of Bermuda in October: unnamed (1970), Grace (1991), Fay & Gonzalo (2014),” wrote Philip Klotzbach, a meteorologist at Colorado State University, in a tweet.
In the late morning on October 12, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this false-color image of Nicole. At the time, the storm was roughly 300 miles (500 kilometers) south-southwest of Bermuda. The false-color view uses MODIS Band 31, which measures infrared signals known as brightness temperature. Brightness temperature is useful for distinguishing cooler cloud structures from the warmer surface below.
Tropical storm conditions, including strong winds, are expected in Bermuda on the night of October 12. Forecasters expect 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) of rain the following day. Bermuda’s schools, transportation, and government offices have been closed in anticipation of the storm, according to local news.
References & Resources
- National Hurricane Center (2016) Hurricane NICOLE. Accessed October 12, 2016.
- The Weather Channel (October 12, 2016) Hurricane Nicole a Likely Hurricane Strike For Bermuda Thursday. Accessed October 12, 2016.
- The Royal Gazette (October 12, 2016) Island Braced for Direct Hit. Accessed October 12, 2016.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens, using data from the Land Atmosphere Near real-time Capability for EOS (LANCE). Caption by Pola Lem.
