English: Hurricane Katrina exploded into a Category 5 storm on August 28 as it moved north through the Gulf of Mexico towards the United States. It is one of the most powerful storms on record for the Atlantic Basin. Nearly the whole of the Gulf of Mexico was churning with the powerful winds and rains of Hurricane Katrina on August 28, 2005, when NASA’s QuikSCAT satellite captured this image. The image depicts relative wind speeds swirling around the calm center of the storm. The highest wind speeds, shown in shades of purple, circle a well-defined eye, with gradually weakening winds radiating outward. The barbs reveal wind direction, and the white barbs show heavy rainfall. At the time this image was taken, the National Hurricane Center reported that Katrina had winds of 160 miles per hour (257 kilometers per hour or 140 knots) with stronger gusts, and it was moving north-northwest at about 10 mph (16 km/hr). The storm weakened slightly before coming ashore, but was still a powerfully destructive storm.