At 2:10 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time (18:10 UTC) on September 29, 2015, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of Tropical Storm Joaquin. At the time, the storm was located about 650 kilometers (400 miles) east of the northwestern Bahamas (off the left side of the image). The storm was between a tropical depression and tropical storm in strength.
By September 30, Joaquin had strengthened to a category 1 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 70 knots (80 miles per hour). The hurricane tracked toward the southwest at 5 knots (6 miles per hour). Forecasts suggest that the storm could affect the U.S. East Coast.
NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz (LANCE MODIS Rapid Response). Caption by Kathryn Hansen.
