September 20th Hurricane Rita's sustained winds reached 100 miles per hour

On Tuesday, September 20 at 2 p.m. ET, Hurricane Rita's sustained winds reached 100 miles per hour. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite captured this image of Rita at 18:35 UTC or 2:35 p.m. ET. At that time, a hurricane warning was in effect for all of the Florida Keys as well as from south of Florida City on the Florida southeast coast southward to East Cape Sable. The warning extended northward to Chokoloskee on the southwest Florida coast. The warning remained in effect for the Cuban provinces of Matanzas, ciudad de Habana, and La Hanaba. At 2 p.m. ET, the center of Hurricane Rita was located near latitude 23.9 north and longitude 81.7 west or about 50 miles (80 km) south of Key West, Florida and about 65 miles (105 km) northeast of Havana, Cuba.Rita was moving westward near 15 mph, and the motion was expected to continue. The core of the hurricane was expected to move over the Florida Straits in the next 24 hours. Less than 24 hours later, at 8 a.m. ET on Wednesday, September 21, satellite data suggests that Rita has strengthened into a Category 4 storm with sustained winds of 135 mph. She was located 195 miles west of Key West, Florida and moving on a westward track into the Gulf. Storm surge flooding elsewhere in the Florida Keys and south Florida is expected to subside on Wednesday, September 21. Rita is expected to produce additional rainfall accumulations of 1 To 3 inches over portions of extreme southern Florida and the Florida keys. + High resolution image Credit: NASA images courtesy Jeff Schmaltz, from the MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC