Hurricane Dennis

Hurricane Dennis

Hurricane Dennis was bearing down on the Gulf Coast of the United States on July 10, 2005, at 12:15 p.m. (16:15 UTC) when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this image. With winds of 135 miles per hour (217 kph), Dennis was a powerful Category 4 storm just hours away from making landfall. At the time this image was taken, the eye of the storm was about 55 miles (90 kilometers) south, southeast of Pensacola, Florida, and the storm was moving northwest at about 18 miles per hour (29 kph).

The size of the storm put clouds of rain over most of the southeastern United States well before the storm came ashore. In this image, Dennis covers all of Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and stretches over parts of Louisiana. The northern fringes of the storm appear to be over Tennessee and North Carolina.

For additional information and warnings about this storm, please visit the National Hurricane Center. This image is available in additional resolutions from the MODIS Rapid Response Team.

NASA image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC