Hurricane Florence from space is beautifully frightening

The next few days are going to be rough for those on the east coast of the United States.

Hurricane Florence, a major cyclonic storm, is brewing in the central Atlantic at present and is set to impact North Carolina on Thursday into Friday. It’ll be the region’s first major hurricane since Hugo in 1989, but words can only describe half of Florence’s expanse.

Astronauts from the International Space Station (ISS) recently snapped the storm from 300km above planet Earth.

And it’s a monster.

Hurricane #Florence this morning as seen from @Space_Station. A few moments later, #Isaac & the outer bands of #Helene were also visible. pic.twitter.com/WJQfS4au4m

— Ricky Arnold (@astro_ricky) September 10, 2018

Hurricane Hunters also visited the eye of Florence earlier today, recording wind speeds in excess of 225km/h.

View from inside the eye of category 4 #HurricaneFlorence today onboard the NOAA P-3 #NOAA42. (Video credit: Heather Holbach) pic.twitter.com/eEYOI2PBnh

— HRD/AOML/NOAA (@HRD_AOML_NOAA) September 10, 2018

NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold also snapped this image from the ISS earlier this week, depicting Florence’s outer rain bands and defined eye in its centre.

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Hurricane #Florence this morning as seen from @iss. A few moments later, #Isaac & the outer bands of #Helene were also visible.

A post shared by NASA Astronaut Ricky Arnold (@astro_ricky) on Sep 10, 2018 at 6:31am PDT

Incidentally, two other hurricanes are currently swirling in the Atlantic too — Helene and Isaac. Helene isn’t a threat to any land though, while Isaac (which has since been downgraded to a tropical storm) could still impact Hispaniola later this week.

Feature image: NASA