Satellite imagery of Hurricane Ian tearing through the Gulf of Mexico reveals its immense size as well as the lightning flashing close to the storm’s eye.
On Tuesday, the GOES-16 satellite operated by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration captured video of the storm.
The storm was shown churning over the Gulf of Mexico in a video that followed its movement from 9.25 to 11.12 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Around the storm’s obvious eye, the satellite also detected several crackling lightning bolts, which are seen in the video as purple flashes.
Gov. Ron DeSantis is advising residents to evacuate or find shelter as quickly as possible as Hurricane Ian barrels toward Florida. After the hurricane slammed the nation on Tuesday, the electricity system in Cuba was completely destroyed.
The hurricane is anticipated to make landfall on Wednesday and might strengthen to a Category Four storm before it does so, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Within a single day, the hurricane’s power increased from a tropical storm to a Category 3 hurricane, a process that, according to study, is growing more often as global temperatures rise.
The National Hurricane Center predicts that Hurricane Ian would bring “catastrophic winds and floods across the Florida peninsula,” as well as “a life-threatening storm surge.”
The National Hurricane Center issued a public alert on Tuesday night that stated: “On the predicted track, the center of Ian is projected to pass west of the Florida Keys during the next several hours and reach the west coast of Florida inside the hurricane warning area on Wednesday.”
The statement said that the core of Ian will pass across central Florida on Wednesday night and Thursday morning before reemerging over the western Atlantic by late Thursday.