Hurricane Irma has been confirmed as the biggest hurricane to ever form over the Atlantic Ocean, but it’s pretty hard to actually imagine the size of it in your head.
Things like hurricanes are on such a large scale, they’re really hard to wrap your head around in terms of how big they are – statements like the one above don’t really mean much to the average person.
When you see images of the devastation Irma caused, you get some idea of the ferocity of the storm, but no real idea of it’s size either.
Thankfully, we have images of the hurricane from space which truly show how horrifyingly large Hurricane Irma really is.
The images, courtesy of NASA, show the true size of the Category 5 hurricane in context to Earth and it’s fair to say it’s terrifyingly massive.
It must be surreal to see this great swirl of power from the International Space Station, marveling at the staggering storm system.
[ooyala autoplay=”true” code=”BsOWFtYzE6YJAE27-Mt7zFsAWxNrsr9R” player_id=”5df2ff5a35d24237905833bd032cd5d8″ auto=”true” width=”640″ height=”1130″ pcode=”twa2oyOnjiGwU8-cvdRQbrVTiR2l”]
From such a distance, it looks quite serene and ethereal.
The image was shared on Twitter by NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, who revealed the true scale of Irma, who has teared its way through the Caribbean islands and is currently in Florida.
In the past, many Space Station residents have said the Caribbean region is the most beautiful place in the world to see from above due to the crystal blue waters and gorgeous sands.
A few days ago, Antigua and St. Martin could be seen at the eye of Hurricane Irma, and just this morning, residents on Barbados were reporting the sea had receded so far away from the Island, they could no longer see it.
It’s unclear how much devastation will be caused in Florida but there’s been a mass evacuation in parts of the state and water is already reportedly reaching 2 feet in some areas.