Tropical Cyclone Yasi Bears Down on Queensland

After months of rain, flooding, lives lost and weeks now of starting to rebuild after the recent inundation, Queenslanders are facing the brunt of tropical cyclone Yasi, seen below in an image captured by NASA’s Aqua satellite as it makes landfall near Cairns.

At 10 p.m. local time (12:00 UTC) on February 2, shortly before Yasi reached the coast, the storm packed sustained winds of 250 kilometers (155 miles) per hour, with gusts to 305 kilometers (189 miles) per hour, according to the Joint Typhoon Warning Center.

On Feb. 2 at 03:35 UTC/1:35 p.m. Australia local time, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instrument on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured a visible image of Cyclone Yasi before it made landfall in Queensland, Australia. The eye of the cyclone was very clear and indicative of the power of this tropical cyclone.

A full resolution image can be viewed here, but beware, it’s a big one.

Source: NASA Earth Observatory

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