NASA spots Hurricane Lane devouring the view from space
Astronauts on the ISS bear witness to a powerful storm heading for Hawaii.
Hawaii is right in the path of the increasingly scary Hurricane Lane. NASA astronaut Ricky Arnold up on the International Space Station is well out of the way of the storm's fury, but he captured some sobering photos and posted them to Twitter on Wednesday with the message, "The crew of the @Space_Station sends much aloha to everyone there."
#HurricaneLane in the early morning hours near #Hawaii. The crew of the @Space_Station sends much aloha to everyone there. pic.twitter.com/raPh37MZH9
— Ricky Arnold (@astro_ricky) August 22, 2018
The images show the hurricane filling the frame and covering over its section of the Pacific Ocean.
The National Weather Service warned on Twitter on Thursday that the hurricane "will bring life threatening conditions across Hawaii through Saturday with damaging winds, dangerous surf, coastal storm surge and INTENSE FLOODING RAINS. The heavy rains will lead to landslides and hazardous travel!"
Here's the latest track for Hurricane #Lane.
— NWS (@NWS) August 23, 2018
Hurricane Lane will bring life threatening conditions across Hawaii through Saturday with damaging winds, dangerous surf, coastal storm surge and INTENSE FLOODING RAINS. The heavy rains will lead to landslides and hazardous travel! pic.twitter.com/OU0Jac3Jbh
It's no surprise the astronauts are keeping an especially close eye on the path of Hurricane Lane. The current crew on the ISS has an affinity for all things Hawaiian. They have matching Hawaiian shirts for special occasions, like greeting new astronauts, and named their space jam band "AstroHawaii."
Arnold, NASA's Drew Feustel and Oleg Artemyev of Roscosmos used the call sign "Hawaii" for the Soyuz spacecraft they arrived in back in March.
The ISS crew will have more chances to see the storm develop from space. The ISS orbits Earth approximately 16 times over the course of 24 hours, and Hurricane Lane is expected to linger through the weekend.
