File:Central Florida (MODIS 2024-05-25).jpg

English: Each year on the last Monday in May, Americans celebrate Memorial Day—a day set aside to honor the men and women who died while serving in the United States Military. People celebrate by gathering for picnics, parades, and community celebrations. More than just a single day, the celebration has expanded to include not just Monday, but the entire weekend.

As the unofficial start to the summer travel season, tens of thousands of Americans travel on Memorial Day Weekend, most heading towards warm weather, sunshine, and beaches. In other words, towards a place like Florida. It’s no wonder, then that Orlando, Florida is the number one destination in the United States for the Memorial Day weekend, according to the American Automobile Association (AAA).

On May 23, 2024, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) acquired a true-color image of a sunny day in Central Florida at the start of the 2024 Memorial Day Weekend. Man-made structures, such as cities, look gray or grayish green. Lush tropical vegetation appears deep green and agricultural lands takes on mid-tone green.

The city of Orlando to the right (east) and slightly south of center in this image and just southeast of the green-tinted waters of Lake Apopka. East of Orlando, Cape Canaveral extends outward along the Atlantic coast. Merrit Island is just inland of the Cape and separated from it by the Banana River. Moving to the west, Tampa Bay sits on the Gulf of Mexico and is surrounded by several major cities, such as St. Petersburg on the coast and Tampa, at the northeastern tip of the Bay.

The noticeable sandy ridge that runs north and south along the Florida Peninsula, between Tampa and Orlando, is the Lake Wales Ridge. This ridge is part of the southern section of the Central Highlands of Florida. The highest spot on the Lake Wales Ridge, which is the highest natural spot in southern Florida, is Sugarloaf Mountain, which rises 312 feet (95 meters) above sea level. Compare this to the famous Empire State Building in New York City, which is 1,250 feet (380 meters) tall at its roof.

The impressively low elevation of the highest point in peninsular Florida illustrates the vulnerability of the state to sea level rise from climate warming.