Even the International Space Station’s commander is worried about Hurricane Patricia, the strongest storm ever tracked by the National Hurricane Center.
NASA astronaut Scott Kelly, who is currently heading the station’s crew during his yearlong tour of orbital duty, passed along a picture showing the monstrous whirl of white clouds as it approached Mexico today:
Hurricane #Patricia looks menacing from @space_station. Stay safe below, #Mexico. #YearInSpace pic.twitter.com/6LP2xCYcGD
— Scott Kelly (@StationCDRKelly) October 23, 2015
Satellites operated by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have been tracking Patricia’s trek through the Pacific – and when the readings from space are combined with data from probes that are being dropped into the maw of the Category 5 storm, the conclusion is that this one ranks as the strongest hurricane on record for the Western Hemisphere.
Maximum sustained winds rose to near 200 mph, with higher gusts, and diminished only slightly to 190 mph as of the center’s 2 p.m. PT advisory. It said the eye of the “potentially catastrophic” storm is projected to cross Mexico’s Pacific coast within the next few hours, between Manzanillo and Cabo Corrientes – just south of Puerto Vallarta, a tourist hot spot. Patricia should then move quickly to the north-northeast across western and northern Mexico. Keep an eye on the center’s website for updates.
Among the satellites tracking the storm are NOAA’s GOES-15 weather satellite. Check out GOES-15’s animated GIF of the storm’s progress, which complements Scott Kelly’s view from the space station. There’s also a false-color GOES-15 animation showing the storm in infrared wavelengths. The Cooperative Institute for Meteorological Satellite Studies at the University of Wisconsin is providing GOES imagery galore.
The Suomi NPP satellite, a joint project of NASA and NOAA, is also on the case: The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, or VIIRS, can determine the temperature of the storm’s cloud tops – which serves to show how the storm is developing.
The RapidScat instrument that’s mounted on the space station’s exterior is measuring the strength of the storm’s surface winds. Here’s a spooky look at Hurricane Patricia’s wind patterns, as visualized by the Earth Wind Map website using data from the National Weather Service’s Global Forecast System.
Meanwhile, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer on NASA’s Terra satellite captured this view of the hurricane and its “pinhole” eye:
Patricia is projected to dump as much as 20 inches of rain on some areas, giving rise to life-threatening flash floods and mudslides. The only good news is that the storm is expected to weaken quickly as it moves inland.
To get a wider perspective on the situation in the days ahead, keep track of the daily views from the Deep Space Climate Observatory.
