Destruction

Hurricane Ian and more: 11 shocking satellite images show September’s worst storms

by Jennifer Walter
NASA Johnson Space Center via Flickr

NOAA GOES Image Viewer

Storm season is in full swing.

Across the northern hemisphere, powerful typhoons, hurricanes, and tropical storms are battering coastal areas as the seasons shift.

Last week, Hurricane Fiona slammed Puerto Rico, leaving most residents on the island without power or running water.

Lauren Dauphin/NASA Earth Observatory

Shutterstock

And this week, Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida, bringing maximum sustained winds of up to 150 miles per hour.

CIRA/CSU & NOAA

From space, satellites like NASA and NOAA’s GOES-16 kept a watchful eye on September’s biggest storms.

The views are stunning, and also a haunting reminder of the destructive power of nature.

Lauren Dauphin/NASA EOSDIS LANCE, GIBS/Worldview/Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership

NASA Johnson Space Center via Flickr

Here are 11 jaw-dropping views of this season’s storms from space:

11. From September 15 to 24, NASA and NOAA’s GOES-16 satellite watched Hurricane Fiona form in the Atlantic, close in on Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic, and move north.

CIRA/CSU & NOAA

auren Dauphin, using MODIS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE and GIBS/Worldview and VIIRS data from NASA EOSDIS LANCE, GIBS/Worldview, and the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS)

10. Around the same time, their NOAA-20 satellite watched as Typhoon Nanmadol hit Japan.

9. Japan’s Himawari-8 satellite captured this view of Nanmadol’s churning eye on September 17.

CIRA/NOAA/NESDIS

8. This time lapse from GOES-19 shows Hurricane Fiona’s movement over September 21.

CIRA/CSU & NOAA

7. As Hurricane Fiona approached eastern Canada, it shapeshifted from a hurricane to an extratropical cyclone, as captured by GOES-16.

CIRA/CSU & NOAA

CIRA/CSU & JMA/JAXA

6. Super Typhoon Noru, captured here by Himawari-8, hit the Philippines on September 25 and displaced tens of thousands of people.

5. This infrared Suomi NPP satellite image shows Noru’s cool central clouds in blue and white, and warm external clouds in yellow and orange.

Lauren Dauphin/NASA EOSDIS LANCE, GIBS/Worldview/Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership

CIRA/CSU & NOAA

4. Over the Caribbean Sea on September 24, Tropical Storm Ian bubbles up, as spotted by GOES-16.

3. By September 26, Ian was a Category 2 hurricane. It was visible from the International Space Station as it barreled toward Cuba and the U.S.

NASA Johnson Space Center via Flickr

2. GOES-16 spotted lightning flickering around Hurricane Ian’s eye on September 27, as it intensified to Category 3.

CIRA/CSU & NOAA

CIRA/CSU & NOAA

1. By the time Hurricane Ian made landfall in Florida on September 28, it was just shy of Category 5 intensity, as imaged by GOES-16.

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