August 23, 2004
The NOAA 15 satellite image above of Hurricane Alex was taken on August 4, 2004 (22:02 UT or 6:02 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time), just southeast of Long Island, New York. Note the well defined eye and eyewall clouds -- the Sun is low in the western sky at this time and illuminating the eastern portion of the eye. Even though Alex was not a particularly ferocious storm (sustained winds of 90 knots and gusts to 110 knots, category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson Scale), it broke a record by becoming the most powerful hurricane to form north of 38 degrees north latitude. In order to portray "true color," an infrared channel and two visible channels were merged. Thanks to Bill Verhagen for making this image available.