It’s been five years since the first hurricane of the season formed in June, but that’s what the National Hurricane Center predicted and that’s precisely what showed up in the form of Alex, who you can see here bumping against Mexico. NHC foresees an especially active season for storms, partly because of exceptionally high water temperatures in the Caribbean and an El Niño in the Pacific that’s mutating into La Niña. Alex was the first Category 2 hurricane to form in June in 44 years.

The image was captured by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite on June 30, 2010.

NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team.

Tagged as: aerial, environment, oceans, picture of the day, space, water, weather