Hurricane Ike sprawls over much of the Gulf of Mexico in this photo-like image taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite at 12:25 p.m. EDT on September 11, 2008. In a public advisory issued at 1:00 p.m., the National Hurricane Center warned that Ike was a Category 2 hurricane with winds of 160 kilometers per hour (100 miles per hour) and that hurricane-force winds extended 185 kilometers (115 miles) from the center. Indeed, its vast size is Ike’s most notable feature in this image. The southern fringes of the storm touch Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula, while the northern fringes hang over Louisiana.
The National Hurricane Center forecast that the storm would intensify before coming ashore over Texas late on September 12 and early on September 13.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data provided courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response team. Caption by Holli Riebeek.
