Hurricane Alma in the Eastern Pacific Ocean

Hurricane Alma in the Eastern Pacific Ocean

As of Thursday morning, May 30, 2002, Hurricane Alma was a Category 2 hurricane, with sustained winds up to 110 miles per hour and gusts up to 135 miles per hour. Located in the eastern Pacific Ocean several hundred miles west of central Mexico and south of Baja California, the storm is tracking northward at about 9 miles per hour, and is forecast to weaken as it moves north over cooler ocean waters. Alma is the eastern Pacific’s first named storm of the season.

This image of Hurricane Alma was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite on Wednesday, May 29, 2002.

Please note that the high-resolution scene provided here is 500 meters per pixel. For a copy of the scene at the sensor's fullest resolution, visit the MODIS Rapid Response Image Gallery.

Image courtesy Jacques Descloitres, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC