On March 27, 2017, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this natural-color image of Cyclone Debbie approaching the coast of Queensland, Australia. Shortly after the image was acquired, the U.S. Joint Typhoon Warning Center estimated that the sustained wind speeds in the center of the storm were 90 knots (165 kilometers or 105 miles per hour).
Forecasters with the Australian Bureau of Meteorology were expecting the storm to pass through the Whitsunday Islands and make landfall early on March 28 between Ayr and Cape Hillsborough. They predicted wind gusts as high as 260 kilometers per hour near the center of the storm.
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, LANCE/EOSDIS Rapid Response. Caption by Mike Carlowicz.
