Tropical Cyclone Mora Battering Bangladesh (Credit: NASA)

DISCUSSION: In only two days, Tropical Cyclone Mora formed in the Bay of Bengal and strengthened into a tropical storm. NASA's Aqua and NASA-NOAA's Suomi NPP satellites tracked the extent and progress of the storm as it was making landfall in Bangladesh. On May 29 at 3:54 a.m. EDT, the time of the Suomi NPP satellite’s overpass, Mora’s maximum sustained winds were near 63 mph (102 km/h) moving north-northeast.

By 11 p.m. EDT on May 29, Mora's maximum sustained winds were near 75 mph (120 km/h), officially making it a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. At 3:20 a.m. EDT on May 30, NASA's Aqua captured a visible image of Mora which showed its center still over the Bay of Bengal while its eastern and northern clouds had extended over Bangladesh, India, and Myanmar. By 11 a.m. on May 30, Mora made landfall near Chittagong, Bangladesh affecting hundreds of thousands of lives. Rapid weakening of the storm is expected within the next two days as it moves inland.

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©2017 Meteorologist Nicholas Quaglieri