Top hurricane sat photos of all time...

[somethingfunny]

Three incredible images from earlier this week. First one is of Bansi and Chedza "holding hands" and the latter two are of Bansi's eyewall lightning seen from the International Space Station and are among the most incredible photographs I have ever seen.

[xtyphooncyclonex]

What's going on with the eyewall in this picture? It looks like three shades darker than the rest of the storm and like it's protruding out. I know of two similar pictures:

Whatever it is, it looks pretty cool.

That's called an eyewall replacement cycle.

[tatertawt24]

What's going on with the eyewall in this picture? It looks like three shades darker than the rest of the storm and like it's protruding out. I know of two similar pictures:

Whatever it is, it looks pretty cool.

That's called an eyewall replacement cycle.

Yeah, I figured that. I mean what's actually causing that weird elevated look to the eyewall? Is it just an illusion? Because the new eyewall is within the decaying eyewall, it gives the appearance that the inner eyewall is raised up higher?

And wow, that picture of the eyewall lightning is real?

[euro6208]

No matter what year and month the planet allows me to develop, I will be strong!

Higos 2002 at 135 knots and 2015 at 115 knots! Category 4's!

[tatertawt24]

^Any idea what storm this is? I can't match it up anywhere.

[euro6208]

^Any idea what storm this is? I can't match it up anywhere.

Super Typhoon Melor from 2009 which peaked at 150 knots...

[tatertawt24]

^Any idea what storm this is? I can't match it up anywhere.

Super Typhoon Melor from 2009 which peaked at 150 knots...

Thanks! I just realized almost the exact same picture was posted earlier in the thread and I completely skipped past it. Anyway~



^Looks a lot like Wilma.



Danas, looking a bit like Katrina.



Keith!

[euro6208]

Now how about Cyclone Pam at pean intensity of 145 knots?

3nd lowest pressure on record in the Southern Hemisphere 896 mb and 2nd strongest in the South Pacific just behind the record holder 890mb Cyclone Zoe...

[TheAustinMan]

Continuing the Cyclone Pam images, here's one of the hurricane near its closest approach to Port Vila on March 13 as imaged from the International Space Station at night.

[Yellow Evan]

Maysack deserves some love as well.

[euro6208]

Incredible pictures of Category 5 Maysak at 140 knots...

Tied for the strongest Cat 5 along with three others and 6th Super Typhoon prior to April in recorded history...A record for the WPAC and the NHEM although any record here is always a Northern/Southern Hemisphere record...

[euro6208]

Imagine falling from the space shuttle if there was no gravity and into the eye of Maysak where it is calm the whole hell broke loose.

[euro6208]

How about the incredible season from 2014? 3 tied for the strongest ever peaking at 155 knots...

Super Typhoon Vongfong...




Super Typhoon Nuri...




Super Typhoon Hagupit...

[euro6208]

Looking like this el nino could rival 1997...

Could we see something similiar to this this year?

Super Typhoon Ivan and Joan side by side in October at extreme peak of 160 knots, category 5. First documented extreme in any basin...

[cycloneye]

This one I think trumps the other ones from the ISS of the eye of supertyphoon Maysak.

[euro6208]

Can't forget this storm like many others...

Super Typhoon Haiyan...

[euro6208]

Devastating category 4 Cyclone Nargis...

[euro6208]

Cyclone Ingrid

[HurricaneEdouard]

You can use different metrics when determining 'top hurricane sat photos.' For instance, I agree Isabel, Mitch and Katrina are absolutely beautiful storms, but what about most intense-looking satellite presentation? As in, you wake up one morning and the latest advisory has it pegged at a record 868 mb... What kind of satellite presentation would make you believe that? I wouldn't believe Isabel, as an annular hurricane, could be anything close to that despite its 'beauty.' So here's a few babies that, in my opinion, look like they could plausibly be the most powerful tropical cyclones:



Super Typhoon Tip. The eye, CDO and intense southwest banding are absolutely spectacular. This is actually just a little while after peak intensity; you can see traces of an ERC about to start. But still, if I saw this, I could believe this is the king of storms.



Hurricane Gilbert is my personal favourite in terms of satellite presentation. The size of the storm compared to the pinhole eye, and those swirling galaxy-like 'arms...'



Love its pinhole eye. To be honest, I don't think it looks as powerful as some of the others here, but maybe that's just me.



JTWC had Zeb at 872 mb. It's also noteworthy as it spawned another tropical storm in its vast inflow, and then absorbed it. Looks somewhat like Gilbert, with its vast size yet small eye, and pinwheeling bands. The outflow to the southwest is just insane.



That outflow... If Gay had happened earlier in the season when ambient pressures were lower, I'd be very confident in supporting the satellite estimates for it being stronger than Tip.



Incredibly symmetrical, and definitely beautiful. Generally, I associate small, if not pinhole, eyes and intense, distinct banding features with sub-890mb storms, but Monica nonetheless looks so perfect I do think its satellite presentation could match a Tip-rivalling storm.



This is probably the weakest of the lot, at a 'mere' 140 knots (although I'm sympathetic to a 150-155 knot estimate). So maybe this is just personal preference in satellite presentation, but I do think it looks exceptionally, Tip-rivalling intense.



Who can forget Haiyan? In my opinion, Haiyan looks better on infrared than visual, but I've never seen a CDO quite like Haiyan's with such cold cloudtops, and if somebody woke me up and said recon got a sub-870 fix on a hurricane in the Caribbean and it looked like this, I could believe them. I also love its shape, with a very intense feeder band to the west heralding its arrival.

I wish I had better satellite images of Super Typhoon June (which was more intense than Tip IMO), or even satellite images at all of the 1935 Labor Day hurricane, given that I've never seen an Iris-sized micromonster with 892 (or perhaps lower) pressures and would be very curious what that'd look like on satellite, but there you go!

[euro6208]

My personal strongest is STY Haiyan, Gay, Angela, or June for the strongest TC on the planet.

Haiyan 8.1 ADT with dvorak at 8.0 for over 10 hours...

Gay had a higher ADT 8.7 with a smaller eye thus winds could be more violent

Angela peaked at 8.3

June measured by recon had peak at 875 mb but measured this near the eyewall as the dropsonde missed the center of it's 3 nm eye...(Could have been 10 mb lower)

Tip was dethroned by one of these typhoons or other extremely strong typhoons long time ago...Too bad we have no more recon...