As of Saturday, August 31, Dorian, a Category 4 hurricane, is moving through the western Atlantic Ocean and heading toward the northwestern Bahamas, where it’s expected to make landfall sometime on Sunday. A tropical storm watch has also been issued for Florida’s East Coast, where Dorian will likely be a threat next week.
Cameras outside the station captured views of #HurricaneDorian at 11:28am ET Aug. 31 over the Atlantic Ocean. The storm, with winds of 145 miles an hour, may reach Category 5 status, according to the @NWSNHC, as it moves toward the east coast of Florida. https://t.co/914xAeTTnJ pic.twitter.com/hDerR4eU8R
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) August 31, 2019
As residents in the Bahamas and in the southeast US brace for the hurricane, cameras on the International Space Station hundreds of miles above Earth have captured the intensity of the storm in incredible images.
At 11:28 a.m. EDT on Saturday and 12:18 p.m. EDT on Friday, images captured show the storm, with winds of 145 miles an hours, churning over the Atlantic Ocean and moving toward the east coast of Florida.
Cameras outside the space station captured these views of rapidly intensifying #HurricaneDorian at 12:18pm ET on August 30 as it churned over the Atlantic Ocean. For more on NASA’s coverage of #Dorian, visit: https://t.co/Si2ENfjBN0. pic.twitter.com/llcY8mXakw
— Intl. Space Station (@Space_Station) August 30, 2019
NOAA-NASA’s Suomi NPP satellite, GCOM-W1 and NOAA-20 all passed over Dorian in that order, right around the 2:00 am EDT NHC advisory, each observing unique features.
On Saturday, Suomi NPP caught Dorian (seen on the west side of the scan below) showing a well-defined eye that can be easily seen along with different cloud bands. A lone lightning strike is seen within the storm in the southern portion. Infrared imagery also spotted tropospheric convective gravity waves flowing away from the intense storm.
(Credit: NASA / NOAA / UWM-SSEC-CIMSS / William Straka III)
On Saturday, the NOAA-20 satellite flew over Hurricane Dorian. The imagery it captured early Saturday morning showed the structure of Dorian quite well, even though there was no moonlight present, along with mesospheric gravity waves being flung far away from the storm.
(Credit: Credit: NASA / NOAA / UWM-SSEC-CIMSS /William Straka III)
It is only when a storm is well developed that the refined eye appears giving forecasters an idea of the center of circulation, according to NASA.
Rainfall totals of 10 to 15 inches are expected in the northwestern Bahamas, with isolated amounts up to 25 inches, which may cause flash flooding, according to the National Hurricane Center. The central Bahamas can expect 2 to 4 inches, with isolated totals up to 6 inches.
At this time, it’s too early to know the exact magnitude and location of any impacts from damaging winds, storm surge or flooding rainfall in Florida and the rest of the Southeast, but a tropical storm watch has been issued for portions of Florida’s east coast from Deerfield Beach to Sebastian Inlet.
Tropical storm watches mean winds of 40 mph or greater are possible within 48 hours, according to weather.com.
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