On Sunday Aug. 27, Ernesto became the first storm of the Atlantic season to reach hurricane intensity. Ernesto did not maintain hurricane intensity for long, however, and was soon downgraded back to a tropical storm after grazing the southwestern tip of Hispaniola. Ernesto formed from an easterly wave, a low-pressure ripple in the atmosphere, that moved west across the Atlantic and into the Caribbean.

Throughout the day, Ernesto continued to encounter high-altitude winds from the southwest that pushed the storm’s top eastward, creating the elongated oval shape seen in the image. This image was obtained when Ernesto was approaching Haiti. At the time of this image, Ernesto’s sustained winds reached 92 km per hour (58 mph).

As of August 29, Ernesto remained a somewhat disorganized tropical storm system. The storm was expected to reorganize as it left Cuba, but it was unclear if it would have enough time to develop back to hurricane strength before making a projected landfall in south Florida.

The potential effects of Ernesto on the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center have delayed the launch of shuttle Atlantis, scheduled for Aug. 27.

The weakening of the storm, however, means that the orbiter could launch before its flight window closes on Sept. 7.

-- SPACE.com Staff

Credit: Hal Pierce and Steve Lang (SSAI/NASA GSFC)