NASA video shows massive scale of Hurricane Florence from space
On Friday morning, Hurricane Florence made landfall in North Carolina, bringing extreme winds, surging seas, and huge amounts of rain to the coast.
While forecasters have been keeping a close eye on the storm from the ground, the International Space Station watched the slow-moving hurricane make landfall from above.
A new 5-minute video from the space station shows Florence coming ashore in the U.S. for the first time.
"Cameras outside the International Space Station captured views of Hurricane Florence on Sept. 14 at 7:41 a.m. EDT minutes after the storm made landfall near Wrightsville Beach, North Carolina packing winds of 90 miles an hour," NASA said in a video description.
"The National Hurricane Center said Florence is moving very slowly to the west at only 6 miles an hour, then is expected to turn to the southwest, increasing the threat for historic storm surge and catastrophic flooding to coastline areas and inland cities in North Carolina and South Carolina."
NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold also captured Florence making landfall from his spot on the orbiting outpost.
The photo shows just how huge Florence looks, with its wind field stretching for hundreds of miles.
Forecasters are predicting that the storm will continue to weaken but still dump potentially record-breaking amounts of rain as it moves slowly inland.
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"Heavy rain has been occurring in and around Oriental, North Carolina, where 20.37 inches of rainfall has been measured thus far," the National Hurricane Center said in an update.
These types of slow-moving storms -- like Hurricane Harvey -- can be particularly dangerous because of the rain and flooding they can bring.
According to a study in June, hurricanes and typhoons, on average, appear to be slowing down in part because of human-caused climate change.
As the climate warms, the way air moves through the atmosphere can become disrupted, possibly blocking these types of storms in place more often.
A warming climate also means that the atmosphere can hold more and more water vapor, fueling hurricanes with even more water that can fall on coastal areas.
Miriam Kramer worked as a staff writer for Space.com for about 2.5 years before joining Mashable to cover all things outer space. She took a ride in weightlessness on a zero-gravity flight and watched rockets launch to space from places around the United States. Miriam received her Master's degree in science, health and environmental reporting from New York University in 2012, and she originally hails from Knoxville, Tennessee. Follow Miriam on Twitter at @mirikramer.
