Satellite images reveal extreme weather from space
Hurricanes, cyclones, and storm-force gales number some of the most frightening and destructive natural phenomena Mother Nature can throw at us. It's bad enough being at sea or on the ground when one of these monsters barrels in, but you have no idea of the size of what's coming your way until you see it from above.
Click through the gallery and take a look at some of the most infamous storms of recent times photographed from the relative safety of space.
Hurricane Milton
Hurricane Milton was a powerful Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that struck in October 2024, causing extensive damage across Florida. The storm rapidly intensified over the Gulf of Mexico, reaching peak winds of 180 mph (approximately 290 km/h) before making landfall near Siesta Key as a Category 3 hurricane on October 9.
Hurricane Rita
Hurricane Rita is the most intense tropical cyclone on record in the Gulf of Mexico. It reached Category 5 status on September 21, 2005.
Low pressure
A low-pressure weather system builds up over the Middle East on March 26, 2003. Dust is visible blowing up from the desert and moving to the southeast.
Tropical Storm Franklin
Tropical Storm Franklin, an example of a strongly sheared tropical cyclone in the North Atlantic hurricane basin, approaching the Bahamas in 2005.
Mature thunderstorm
A series of mature thunderstorms hang heavy over the Paraná River in southern Brazil.
Extratropical cyclone
A powerful extratropical cyclone closing in on the south of Australia on December 28, 2016. Extratropical cyclones spin clockwise in the Southern Hemisphere, just like tropical cyclones.
Dust storm
In January 2005, a weather system that brought snow and ice to the American Midwest also kicked up a dust storm across western Texas and eastern Mexico. The winds associated with this cold front also fanned the flames of grass fires in the region.
Icelandic Low
The Icelandic Low is a semi-permanent center of low atmospheric pressure found between Iceland and southern Greenland. It's often photographed as a beautifully-formed swirling weather system.
Hurricane Isabel
Hurricane Isabel, one of the strongest, deadliest, and costliest storms of the 2003 Atlantic hurricane season.
Hurricane Floyd
Peaking at Category 4, Hurricane Floyd is seen in September 1999 moving west in the Atlantic Ocean, northeast of the Lesser Antilles towards the Bahamas and the east coast of the United States.
Tropical Storm Bonnie
Tropical Storm Bonnie over the Gulf of Mexico, pictured on August 11, 2004, about 370.149 km (230 miles) above Earth.
Another example of a powerful typhoon-force extratropical cyclone, this one pictured east of the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East on October 24, 2017.
Pyrocumulonimbus
A pyrocumulonimbus is a type of cumulonimbus cloud that forms above a source of heat, such as a wildfire or volcanic eruption.
