October 19, 2014 - Tropical Storm Gonzalo (08L) over the Leeward Islands

Tropical Storm Gonzalo (08L) over the Leeward Islands

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on board NASA’s Aqua satellite passed over newborn Tropical Storm Gonzalo on October 13, 2014 and captured this true-color image. At that time, Gonzalo was obtaining a weak apostrophe shape around a cloud-filled center of rotation as it passed over the Leeward Islands.

Just a few hours later on the same day, Gonzalo strengthened enough become a hurricane as it passed over the northern Leeward Islands. Continuing to intensify, Gonzalo become the second Category 3 hurricane of the2014 Atlantic hurricane season on October 14, then by the next day peaked as a Category 4 hurricane with winds of 130 mph (215 km/h) as it spun in the Atlantic Ocean about 640 mi (1025 km) south southwest of Bermuda.

Fortunately, Gonzalo began to weaken quickly. Before slamming Bermuda at 0030 UTC (12:30 a.m.) on October 17, the storm carried maximum sustained winds of 110 mph (175 km/h) – a strong Category 2 storm, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). By the next day, Gonzalo was moving quickly away from Bermuda and heading towards Newfoundland. At 2100 UTC (5:00 p.m. EDT), the NHC reported Hurricane Gonzalo was about 410 km (660 km south southeast of Halifax, Nova Scotia with sustained winds of 90 mph (150 km/h). A Tropical Storm watch was in effect from Arnold’s Cover to Chapels Cove, Newfoundland as the storm is predicted to move off the coast as it gradually weakens.

Image Facts
Satellite: Aqua
Date Acquired: 10/13/2014
Resolutions: 1km ( B), 500m ( B), 250m ( B)
Bands Used: 1,4,3
Image Credit: Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Land Rapid Response Team, NASA GSFC