Laura formed as a slightly unusual sub-tropical storm in the
northern mid-Atlantic on September 29, 2008. Subtropical storms
are hybrids of tropical storm systems and extratropical storms,
forming in cooler waters farther north (or south) of the usual
hurricane formation regions. Laura formed quite far north, well
away from major land masses. As of September 30, the National
Hurricane Center predicted that the storm could hit Scotland by
October 4. With peak sustained winds of around 95 kilometers per
hour (55 miles per hour), Laura was a powerful storm, but not
hurricane strength. It was unlikely that the storm would ever
become a hurricane, but forecasters expected the storm to remain
near its September 30 strength for several days. This data
visualization was made with observations from the QuikSCAT
satellite taken on September 30, 2008, at 5:39 a.m. local time
(7:39 UTC). It shows Laura as a tight ball of circular winds
around a calmer core. The image depicts wind speed in color and
wind direction with sm