Yikes, Ike!

This is WAY Bigger than a Martian Dust Devil

As everybody on the planet probably knows (or will know soon enough) Hurricane Ike is making landfall on the Texas coast, sending huge storm surge-driven waves up over the Galveston sea wall and causing damage.  If you have Google Earth, you can activate a weather layer and watch (almost hypnotized) as the storm zeros in on the coast.  If you happen to be on the International Space Station, here’s the view of the storm on September 10, 2008.  At that time, the center of the storm was at coordinates 23.8 degrees north latitude and 85.3 degrees west longitude, moving at seven nautical miles per hour.  It’s now over Galveston and doing its worst.  I hope that all who are in the area have been able to find safety, and can ride the storm out.

Hurricane Ike from ISS on September 10.
Hurricane Ike from ISS on September 10. You can see more images at: http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/multimedia/hurr_ike091008.html