Tropical Cyclone Fani, currently spinning over the Bay of Bengal, is advancing northwest toward the eastern coast of India.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite acquired this natural-color image at 5:22 a.m. Universal Time (10:52 a.m. India Standard Time) on May 1, 2019. Around the time of the image, the storm had sustained winds of 105 knots (120 miles/190 kilometers per hour). That’s the equivalent of a category 3 storm on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale.
The U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center calls for Fani to continue to intensify slightly, peaking at 110 knots before weakening gradually as it starts to interact with land. Forecasters expect the storm to make landfall in northeast India late this week.
References & Resources
- U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center (2019, May 1) Tropical Cyclone 01B (Fani) Warning Nr 019. Accessed May 1, 2019.
- The Washington Post (2019, April 30) Strengthening Cyclone Fani could hit eastern India as âÂÂextremely severeâ storm. Accessed May 1, 2019.
- Weather Underground (2019, May 1) Tropical Cyclone Fani. Accessed May 1, 2019.
NASA Earth Observatory image by Joshua Stevens, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS/LANCE and GIBS/Worldview. Caption by Kathryn Hansen.
