EARTH Atlantic Ocean -- 11 Sep 2006 -- It's a whopper... Hurricane Florence is the sixth named storm of the 2006 Atlantic Hurricane Season. Florence started as a tropical depression

EARTH Atlantic Ocean -- 11 Sep 2006 -- It's a whopper... Hurricane Florence is the sixth named storm of the 2006 Atlantic Hurricane Season. Florence started as a tropical depression north and east of the South American coast, and since forming on 03 September 2006, it has grown in power and size only very gradually. As of 11 September, 2006, it had become a Category One hurricane. Its center was not predicted to make landfall, but the inner portions of the hurricane were brushing against Bermuda on 11 September when this image was taken. The storm brought powerful winds, rain, and strong storm-generated surf as it passed as close as 100 kilometers (60 miles) from the island, according to Reuters. This photo-like image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite on September 11, 2006, at 11:05 a.m. local time (15:05 UTC). Hurricane Florence at the time of this image was a large spiral open swirl spread over a wide area of the Atlantic Ocean. Florence had sustained winds of around 145 kilometers per hour (90 miles per hour) at the time this satellite image was acquired, according to the The University of Hawaii’s Tropical Storm information center. The high-resolution image provided is at MODIS’ full spatial resolution (level of detail) of 250 meters per pixel. Florence's trajectory appears to be heading for the British Isles and Ireland and could be a much stronger hurricane by then, perhaps well over Category 5. NASA courtesy image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center -- Picture by Lightroom Photos / NASA