Tropical Cyclone Oli swirled over the South Pacific in early February 2010, some 200 nautical mies (370 kilometers) west-northwest of Bora Bora. At 15:00 UTC February 3 (4:00 a.m. February 4 in New Zeland), the U.S. Navy’s Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) reported that Oli had maximum sustained winds of 65 knots (120 kilometers per hour) and gusts up to 80 knots (150 kilometers per hour). The JTWC forecast that the storm would strengthen over the next 48 hours.
The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this true-color image at 21:00 UTC February 2 (10:00 a.m. February 3 in New Zealand). Storm clouds fill most of this scene. Islands in the French Polynesia island chain appear in the lower-right quadrant of the image.
NASA Earth Observatory image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team. Caption by Michon Scott.
