The NOAA-20 satellite's VIIRS day night band captured this nighttime image of the remnants of subtropical storm Alberto moving through the South and Midwestern U.S. in the early morning hours of May 30, 2018. On May 25, the National Hurricane Center named Alberto the first storm of the 2018 Atlantic Hurricane Season, which officially begins June 1. While most tropical storm systems disintegrate upon making landfall, Alberto took on a more symmetrical spiral appearance after tracking inland from the Gulf of Mexico, even though it was downgraded to a subtropical depression. In this image, the center of the storm's circulation can be seen along the border of Kentucky and Tennessee. The storm's remnants have caused torrential rain and flash flooding in western North Carolina, where the National Weather Service reported nearly 7 inches of rain fell in 24 hours near Asheville, N.C.
NOAA-20's VIIRS sensor is sensitive enough to detect the noctural glow produced by Earth's atmosphere, the glow of urban areas as well as detailed cloud imagery, as seen in this imagery.