Astronauts Keep an Eye on Tropical Storm Arthur from the Space Station

By Nancy Atkinson - July 2, 2014 at 3:57 PM UTC | Space Exploration
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The first storm of the

Atlantic hurricane season

is easily visible from space. International Space Station astronaut

Reid Wiseman

tweeted this picture of the storm, saying, "Just flew over Tropical Storm Arthur – hoping it heads to sea. Looks mean."

Forecasters said the storm is slowly strengthening off Florida's east coast, but will move up the coast just in time for the July 4th holiday in the US. While Tropical Storm Arthur is likely to stay offshore while it cruises by Florida, it might become a hurricane by Thursday. The National Hurricane Center reported at 2 pm EDT Wednesday that a tropical storm warning is in effect for all of coastal North Carolina with a hurricane watch the for the portion of the state that extends into the Atlantic Ocean. As of the time of the report, Tropical Storm Arthur was about 160 km (100 miles) east of Daytona Beach, Florida and 378 km (235 miles) south of Charleston, South Carolina.

[caption id="attachment_112945" align="aligncenter" width="500"]

A graphic showing Tropical Storm Force Wind Speed Probabilities for Tropical Storm Arthur, from July 2 through July 7. Credit: National Hurricane Center/NOAA. [/caption]

For current information about this storm, see the

National Hurricane Center's website.

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson

Nancy Atkinson is a space journalist and author with a passion for telling the stories of people involved in space exploration and astronomy. She is currently retired from daily writing, but worked at Universe Today for 20 years as a writer and editor. She also contributed articles to The Planetary Society, Ad Astra (National Space Society), New Scientist and many other online outlets.

Her 2019 book, "Eight Years to the Moon: The History of the Apollo Missions,” shares the untold stories of engineers and scientists who worked behind the scenes to make the Apollo program so successful, despite the daunting odds against it. Her first book “Incredible Stories From Space: A Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Missions Changing Our View of the Cosmos” (2016) tells the stories of 37 scientists and engineers that work on several current NASA robotic missions to explore the solar system and beyond.

Nancy is also a NASA/JPL Solar System Ambassador, and through this program, she has the opportunity to share her passion of space and astronomy with children and adults through presentations and programs. Nancy's personal website is nancyatkinson.com