On the morning of July 27, 2020, the center of Hurricane Douglas passed
less than 50 miles north of the Hawaiian Island of Kauai.
If it had made landfall, it would have been only the third hurricane to do so since 1959.
Hurricanes in the Pacific rarely make landfall on the West Coast of the United States or Hawaii.
This is in part due to the cooler waters of the Pacific.
Hurricane Douglas neared the islands as a Category 3, with maximum sustained winds near 120 MPH.
However, as Douglas moved over cooler waters, it weakened to a Category 1 hurricane.
NASA satellites tracked the hurricane's movement, wind speed, and precipitation.
Meanwhile, on July 26, 2020, Hurricane Hanna made landfall in Texas as a Category 1 hurricane.
Hanna was the first storm to reach hurricane strength in the Atlantic hurricane season,
which lasts from June 1st to November 30th.
In the Atlantic, hurricanes often form when thunderstorm systems from
Northern Africa move over warm tropical ocean.
Satellites run by both NASA and NOAA track these storms from space and help inform those living in their paths.