The Seychelles are a chain of islands stretching out north of Madagascar off the eastern coast of Africa. On December 20, 2006, these islands were on alert for the very intense tropical cyclone Bondo which was predicted to strike the islands in the early hours of the next day. Cyclone Bondo was a Category 4 strength storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with sustained winds as high as 222 kilometers per hour (138 miles per hour), according to the Reuters news service.

This photo-like image was acquired by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on the Terra satellite on December 20, 2006, at 9:35 a.m. local time (6:35 UTC), while the storm’s center was drawing in towards the Seychelles. The island of Madagascar appears to the southwest of the storm (lower left corner) where the outer rain bands from the storm were coming ashore. Bondo had well-defined spiral arms of rainclouds and thunderstorms at the time of this image, and a strong and clear cloud-filled (or “closed”) eye at its center.