Located in the Colorado Rocky Mountains, Tenmile Range and Copper Mountain are among the state’s meccas for winter sports. In this astronaut photo, the Breckenridge and Copper Mountain ski areas are clearly visible as the snow-covered ski runs stand out from the surrounding darker forest. Tenmile Range has mountain peaks that are named Peaks 1 through Peaks 10. The Breckenridge ski area uses Peaks 7–10, which range from 3,850 meters (12,631 feet) to 4,150 meters (13,615 feet). Tenmile Creek flows in an unusually straight course through 900-meter (about 3,000-foot) deep Tenmile Canyon, which follows a north-northeast fault line. The snow-covered peaks clearly delineate the tree line at an elevation of around 3,350 meters (11,000 feet). Annual average snowfall ranges between 7.21 meters (284 inches) at Copper Mountain to 7.62 meters (300 inches) at Breckenridge. Before recreation became the main industry, miners were attracted to the area in the mid-1800s following discoveries of gold, silver, lead, and zi

Tropical Cyclone Billy moved off the coast of Western Australia on December 25, 2008. The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Aqua satellite took this picture at 3:10 p.m. local time on December 25. Compared to earlier images, the storm appears more compact in this picture, and occurs almost entirely over the ocean. After canceling a tropical cyclone warning from Pardoo to Port Headland, the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology issued a cyclone warning for Western Australia coastal communities near Pilbara, on December 25, 2008. The bulletin warned of wind gusts up to 100 kilometers (60 miles) per hour, should the storm take a route more toward the southwest. The bulletin also forecast a high probability of a tropical cyclone in the region from December 26-28, 2008. On December 28, 2008, the Australian Government Bureau of Meteorology downgraded the storm’s status to that of ex-tropical cyclone, stating that it posed no further threat to communities of Western Australi