Hurricane Helen is expected to make landfall on Florida’s Big Bend coast as a significant typhoon. Category 3 storm on the evening of Thursday, September 26th. At that time, Officials warn Life-threatening conditions are possible, including sustained winds of up to 190 mph, heavy rain, flooding, and storm surge 15 to 20 feet above normal tide levels.
[Related: The average hurricane season is officially more intense.]
These estimates are updated in real time by weather experts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and are combined with regular visual data using spacecraft such as NASA’s Geospatial Operational Environmental Satellite-16 (GOES-16). Provides analytical data. GOES-16, launched in 2016, is just one of a constellation of similar satellites designed to monitor the state of Earth’s atmosphere by regularly taking images of the planet using 16 channels of light. It is designed to. And thanks to Colorado State University’s Cooperative Institute for Atmospheric Research (CIRA), many of these remarkable images showing the intense power of the incoming storm are available online.
Thursday afternoon, CIRA I posted a composite image on X A flash of lightning (also known as a “strong convective fire”) inside the eyewall of Hurricane Helen as it made its way toward the Florida coastline. However, lightning is not confined to the inside of a storm. Late Wednesday evening, CISA introduced a similar “lightning spiral” occurring in the outer belt of the storm.
Part of Hurricane Helen’s rapid increase in strength is due to record warming in the Gulf of Mexico. This could act as a “high-octane jet fuel” for the storm, a University of Miami hurricane researcher said in an interview. new york times On Thursday, he added that the water in Helen’s path was “almost the ideal temperature for a warm bath.” in one time lapse Posted on XCISA illustrated the high temperatures ahead of the storm as it approached Florida on Wednesday.
GOES-16 is not the only tool to track Helen from orbit. International Space Station’s unique external camera recorded a hurricane The hurricane passed over the hurricane on September 26th at approximately 12:50 ET at a height of approximately 420 miles above Earth.
Hurricane Helen is estimated to make landfall in the Big Bend, Florida, around 7:00 p.m. ET, then rapidly move north through the Appalachian Mountains and Ohio Valley, before weakening and turning northwest. . For real-time information, please visit: U.S. government disaster information page For more information.
