As cyclones go, Cyclone
Emma was weak, forming just before coming ashore with winds gusting to
less than 90 kilometers per hour (56 miles per hour). The storm did,
however, drape itself over the whole of Western Australia on March 1, 2006,
bringing a deluge of rain. In the midst of its wet season, the region was
already soggy when Emma came ashore, and the storm’s heavy rains
triggered widespread flooding. Water spilled out of river basins and filled
seasonal lakes across the state on March 2, when the Moderate Resolution
Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)
on NASA’s Aqua satellite took the
top image.
In this image, the rivers and streams in the Murchison and Gascoyne
River Basins have expanded into satiny ribbons of dark blue, with pale blue
streaks formed by muddy channels. These rivers are in central Western
Australia, east of Shark Bay and well inland from where the storm first
struck, but similar floods are apparent throughout the state in the large
image. In the ten days that passed between when the top and the bottom
images were taken, plants have clearly flourished with the late summer
rains. The brushes of green on the arid tan and pink landscape expanded,
particularly around the rivers, which almost appear to be glowing in a halo
of green by March 2. Popcorn clouds drifting over the flood region are pale
blue in this false-color satellite image.
NASA image created by Jesse Allen, using data obtained from the MODIS Rapid Response team and the Goddard Earth Sciences DAAC.