Tropical Storm Bertha, Cape Verde Islands, off coast of Western Africa
In the overnight hours of July 6 2008 Tropical Storm Bertha matured into the first hurricane of the 2008 Atlantic season Far from land the storm posed little threat but it was record breaking nevertheless Since reliable records began in the 1940s no hurricane has ever formed so far east before August 1 This natural color image of Hurricane Bertha was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer MODIS on NASA s Terra satellite on July 9 2008 at 14 45 UTC 10 45 a m Eastern Daylight Time Shortly after the National Hurricane Center estimated that Bertha was a Category 1 storm with maximum sustained wind speeds of 75 miles per hour Bertha was compact when MODIS observed it a small ball of clouds with a long line of thunderstorms trailing away to the southeast The eye of the storm had clouded over Bertha spun up from a tropical depression that coalesced near the Cape Verde Islands in the first week of July By the early morning hours of July 7 it had become a Category 1 hurricane and less than 12 hours later had intensified to Category 3 status with winds near 115 mph Two days later when this image was captured the storm had weakened to Category 1 but was forecast to re intensify Bertha was a Cape Verde storm a tropical storm that starts near the Cape Verde Islands when a wavelike kink in the tropical easterlies over Africa ripples out over the ocean These kinks known as tropical waves help start the large scale rotation of clusters of thunderstorms that will lead to a cyclone Early in the season these waves are weaker and sea surface temperatures are cooler and so it usually takes many days for any Cape Verde storms that form to intensify into hurricanes and all the while they are drifting west Bertha transformed into a major hurricane very rapidly and thus farther east than is usual for July Credit NASA Dembinsky Photo Associates www dpaphoto com
Size: 4768px × 4200px
Location: Cape Verde
Photo credit: © NASA / Dembinsky Photo Associates / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
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