Satellite Image of the Day: September 8, 2004
 (click here for previous images of the day)

Satellite: NOAA-15 and NOAA-17, one of NOAA's 850km-high (530 mile-high) Polar Orbiting satellites.
Flyover beginning 7:51am EDT
 Tropical Storm Frances
Frances moving up through the southeastern U.S.
For more information on factors that influence the paths that hurricanes take, see Kevin Myatt's Weather Journal on the Roanoke Times website.
You can see the evolution of the path of Frances by checking out the previous Satellite Image of the Day pages on this site.
Click on the images below for a higher-resolution (>100k) version.
In each of these images, you'll find the small red circle marking the location of Radford University.

Frances has just crashed into a cold front that came from the west.
Where the highly-saturated air from Frances met the cold front is where heavy rains are currently falling.
Flooding is expected throughout the mid-Atlantic and mid-western states.
Flyover beginning 7:57am EDT

Frances and the cold front are fighting it out, with the hoped-for result that Frances will continue to dissipate.
Note how this cold front has kept the heartland states from all of this moisture--clear skies over Nebraska rule for the last several days.
Flyover beginning 12:30pm EDT