Planet Earth has seen its fair share of horrifying storms these past few weeks. With Florence ravaging the US east coast earlier this month, and Mangkhut ripping through the Philippines and Hong Kong last week, another storm is brewing in the Pacific. And who better to photograph it than the human beings in space?
German astronaut Alexander Gerst on Tuesday evening tweeted what could easily be mistaken as a Roland Emmerich movie poster. But it’s not a poster, it’s a real storm. Super Typhoon Trami.
No ad to show here.
“As if somebody pulled the planet’s gigantic plug. Staring down the eye of yet another fierce storm. Category 5 Super Typhoon Trami is unstoppable and heading for Japan and Taiwan. Be safe down there!” Gerst tweeted from the International Space Station.
The tweet itself received more than 4500 retweets and 9000 likes.
As if somebody pulled the planet’s gigantic plug. Staring down the eye of yet another fierce storm. Category 5 Super Typhoon Trami is unstoppable and heading for Japan and Taiwan. Be safe down there! #TyphoonTrami pic.twitter.com/4VmY2hhj2c
— Alexander Gerst (@Astro_Alex) September 25, 2018
The typhoon itself, albeit no less impressive, probably won’t win as many fans.
Although it peaked in intensity on Heritage Day, Trami remains a category 3-equivalent cyclone with 190km/h sustained wind speeds at the time of writing.
Feature image: NASA Earth Observatory by Kathryn Hansen
