Hurricane Henriette spawns 10-mile-high thunderstorms

NASA took a peak inside the Category 1 Hurricane Henriette, which is currently churning the Pacific south-east of Hawaii and already the strongest storm of the year.

Using Tropical Rain Measuring Mission satellites to collect low-sun angles of the storm, NASA's team at the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., captured images of towering thunderheads that indicate just how strong Henriette is.

Chimney clouds, or "hot towers" help play a role in the formation and intensification of tropical storms, dropping intense rainfall -- in Henriette's case, 2.2 inches per hour -- at the eye wall.

Henriette's maximum sustained winds were 85 mph at 11 a.m. Eastern Wednesday, and weakening is expected to begin Thursday. Forecasters do not expect the storm, which is still more than 1,000 miles east of Hawaii, to make landfall.