Acquired at 2:15 p.m. EDT on August 24, 2011, this natural-color image shows Hurricane Irene over the Caribbean, en route to the continental United States.
Irene, the first hurricane of the 2011 Atlantic season, was poised on August 26 to be the first to make land-fall in tU.S. since 2008. More than 50 million people were estimated to lie within the path of the storm.