A large storm system brought more than a foot of rain to parts of Central Texas on October 30 and 31, 2013. Up to 14 inches (36 cm) of rain fell in the Austin region, according to the National Weather Service. The rain triggered flash floods that left two people dead, forced evacuations, and closed roads. The clouds had largely cleared by 12:35 p.m. when the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite acquired the top natural color image. Normally black or dark blue, rivers and reservoirs are muddy brown and green from runoff. Read more
NASA images courtesy LANCE/EOSDIS MODIS Rapid Response Team at NASA GSFC. Caption by Holli Riebeek.