“Katrina is comparable in intensity to Hurricane Camille of 1969, only larger,” warned the National Hurricane Center on Sunday, August 28, 2005. By that time, Hurricane Katrina was set to become one of the most powerful storms to strike the United States, with winds of 257 km/h (160 mph) and even stronger gusts. The air pressure, another indicator of hurricane strength, at the center of this Category 5 storm measured 902 millibars, the 4th lowest air pressure on record for an Atlantic storm at the time (7th lowest now). The lower the air pressure, the more powerful the storm. The Moderate Resolution Spectroradiometer captured this image from NASA’s Terra satellite at 1pm (EDT) as the massive storm covered much of the Gulf of Mexico, spanning from the U.S. coast to the Yucatan Peninsula. The image provided above has a resolution of 259 meters per pixel. The left of the image is north.
Gulf of Mexico
Category: Space
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