Tropical Cyclone Monica formed off the northeastern coast of Australia on April 17, 2006. This is the same general area where Cyclone Larry formed a month earlier. Larry caused devastation to Queenland’s coastal communities and destroyed a large fraction of the banana trees in the region. Cyclone Monica was not predicted to be anywhere near as destructive as Larry, and Monica’s path across Cape York Peninsula in northern Queensland would take it well away from most settled areas.

This photo-like image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Aqua satellite on April 19, 2006, at 2:10 p.m. local time (04:10 UTC). Cyclone Monica at this time had a large spiral form, and its well-developed eye was just about to make landfall as the Aqua satellite flew overhead. Sustained peak winds in the storm system were roughly 140 kilometers per hour (85 miles per hour) around the time the image was captured.