Stare Down from Space into the Churning Maw of Hurricane Florence

This image of Hurricane Florence was taken on Tuesday September 11th when Florence was a Category 4 storm. The image was taken by ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst aboard the International Space Station. Image: ESA/NASA–A. Gerst

Even if you know nothing about hurricanes, an unavoidable sense of doom and destruction overtakes you when you look at this image of Hurricane Florence as it moves inexorably toward North and South Carolina.

Even if you didn’t know that the powerful storm is forecast to gain strength as it hits the coast on Friday, or that it will dump several months of rain onto the region in a mere few days, or that the storm surge could reach as high as 9 to 13 ft. If you didn’t know all those things, the picture of Florence taken from space would still fill you with foreboding.

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