NASA-NOAA’s Suomi-NPP satellite finds Hurricane
Hurricane Leslie viewed broken images from NASA-NOAA’s Suomi-NPP satellite as it passed over the eastern Atlantic.
On October 10, the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument on NASA-NOAA’s Suomi-NPP satellite looked at Leslie in visible light. Leslie is a major storm with a large area of severe thunderstorms orbiting the broken eye. Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 30 miles (45 km) from the center, and tropical storm-force winds extend outward up to 240 miles (390 km).
On October 11, the National Hurricane Center said that Leslie’s structure has remained stable since the night of October 10. The hurricane has a ragged ribbon eye surrounded by a somewhat patchy dense cloud cover.
At 11:00 a.m. EDT (1500 UTC), the center of Hurricane Leslie was located near latitude 29.1 degrees north and longitude 38.3 degrees west. It is about 895 miles (1,440 km) southwest of the Azores. The National Hurricane Center, or NHC, noted that Leslie is moving to the east-northeast near 16 mph (26 km/h), and that general motion with some updraft speed ahead could begin late Saturday, Oct. 13. Maximum sustained winds near 80 mph (130 km/h) with higher gusts. During the next 48 hours, a slight change in intensity is predicted, but a weakening is expected over the weekend.
Leslie is now accelerating to the east-northeast south of the mid-latitude trough (an elongated area of low pressure) moving across the North Atlantic. In 48 hours (October 13), Leslie will be moving into a much more stable environment and over cooler waters, so a steady weakening is expected.
Updated forecasts can be found at: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov
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