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Tropical Storm Fay spent six days zig-zagging
across Florida and dumping heavy rain on the entire state between August
19 and August 24, 2008. By August 25, when the Moderate Resolution Imaging
Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite captured the top image,
floods inundated much of Florida. The worst of the flooding was along the
St. Johns River in central Florida, which reached 10.95 feet near Lake
Harney on August 26, and water levels were still rising, said the National
Weather Service. The river floods when water levels reach 8.5 feet.
Too small to be visible the previous
month, the swollen river paints a wide black ribbon down the bright green
plant-covered landscape in the top image. Tiny clouds, pale blue and white
in this type of image, dot the skies in both images. The large image, which
includes a broader area, shows additional flooding around Lake Okeechobee.
The St. Johns River lines the east coast
of Florida near Cape Canaveral, home to NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Tropical
Storm Fay closed the center between August 19 and August 21, but caused
only minor damage to the facilities and no damage to space hardware, according
to initial assessments.