For many of us, taking the time to admire a thunderstorm can be calming — if done from a safe location, of course. Most of us stay inside our homes during severe weather, but Anne McClain is lucky enough to get a much more spectacular view. She is a NASA astronaut and U.S. Army colonel who, last month, was at the International Space Station. Here, she had the unforgettable experiencing of viewing massive thunderstorms all the way from space.
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Luckily for the rest of us, Anne decided to share the breathtaking footage she got on social media. Although we’re not given the exact date of the video, we can tell that it focuses on Florida. Over the past month, this state has seen a number of storms. In fact, rainfall records were broken in a number of areas across the Southeast, including Miami.
@abcnews An astronaut said she was “astounded” by the scale of the thunderstorms she saw over the U.S. from the International Space Station. "Some of these flashes are as large as cities," she posted on X. #space #astronauts ♬ original sound – ABC News
“A nighttime pass over the Eastern and Southern United States,” Anne writes. “I was astounded at the scale of recent thunderstorms … some of these flashes are as large as cities!”
NASA Astronaut Shares Her Breathtaking View of Massive Thunderstorms From Space
Did you see all of those dark areas with random flashes of light? Those are thunderstorms. This video makes it easy to understand how so many rainfall records could be broken around this time. If that’s what they look like from space, imagine what it was like on Earth! This view really puts into perspective the fact that thunderstorms can be 15 miles wide and reach tens of thousands of feet high.
NASA does much more than provide spectacular views of storms. They’re actually vital to our knowledge of weather and help improve our ability to track severe storms in real time. How cool is that!?
You can find the source of this story’s featured image here!
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