image: This night-time view of Cyclone Evan was taken from the Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite on NASA/NOAA's Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership on Dec. 16, 2012. The rectangular bright object in the image is a lightning flash. "Because of the scan time as compared to how quickly lightning flashes, you get a nice streak in the data," said William Straka, of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, who provided this image. On Dec. 17 at 0900 UTC (4 a.m. EST), Cyclone Evan had maximum sustained winds near 115 knots (132 mph/213 kph). Evan was a Category 4 cyclone on the Saffir-Simpson Scale and was battering Fiji. For all NASA storm history and images on Cyclone Evan, visit the NASA Hurricane page at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/hurricanes/archives/2012/h2012_Evan.html view more
Credit: Image Credit: NASA/NOAA/UWM/William Straka Text Credit: NASA Goddard/Rob Gutro