Harrowing views of Hurricane Ian from air and space show how large and powerful the storm is

• Views from space show Hurricane Ian as it made landfall in Florida on Wednesday.
• Hurricane hunters who flew into the eye of the storm found it violent and filled with lightning.
• The storm is a Category 4 hurricane, with wind speeds of 150 miles per hour and life-threatening storm surge.
  

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station got a glimpse of mighty Hurricane Ian as it made landfall on Florida's west coast Wednesday afternoon.

The ISS flew over the storm, beaming down spectacular but frightening snapshots of dense, swirling clouds from the Category 4 hurricane.

Ian made landfall at 3:05 p.m. ET with sustained winds of 150 mph, just shy of a Category 5 storm.

A satellite captured the eye of the storm, below, as it moved over land, in footage shared by the Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere, a collaboration between Colorado State University and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Other views from space, taken with satellites, show the hurricane covering nearly all of Florida.

Ian grew and developed powerful winds as it moved through warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico. While no single storm can be linked to the climate crisis without further research, hurricanes overall are becoming stronger, slower, and wetter as the atmosphere and oceans warm.

Ian's powerful churn and well-developed eye are much clearer in the infrared satellite animation below.

Harrowing flights through the eye of the storm

When Air Force hurricane hunters flew into Hurricane Ian's eye on Wednesday, they encountered surprisingly strong winds. Turbulence pushed the aircraft into a drop of roughly 700 feet, according to one Air Force meteorologist. (He was not on the flight.)

Dave Malkoff, a Weather Channel correspondent who accompanied the group on the plane, reported that the drop was more than 1,000 feet. There was also hail, he said.

"It was NOT even calm inside the eye," Malkoff wrote on Twitter upon landing.

A NOAA reconnaissance plane called Kermit encountered similar turbulence as it flew through Ian's eye. Nick Underwood, an engineer aboard the plane, shared video from inside the flight, showing mattresses falling off bunk beds as the plane was jostled.

—Tropical Nick Underwood (@TheAstroNick) September 28, 2022

"We're kind of used to the up-and-down, roller coaster feeling that you get, but in this case, there was just a lot of lateral movement," Underwood told The New York Times. "It was a lot more unnerving."

He also shared a photo in which the heart of the hurricane is illuminated by lightning.

"Understand this is at NIGHT. The light is from LIGHTNING," Underwood wrote.

—Tropical Nick Underwood (@TheAstroNick) September 28, 2022

"This flight to Hurricane Ian on Kermit was the worst I've ever been on. I've never seen so much lightning in an eye," Underwood said.

The flight was "absolutely wild," he said, adding, "I'm glad we only did one pass."

Satellite also captured lightning near the storm's eye as it made landfall.

Hurricane Ian is forecast crawl northeast across the state, emerging out of the Florida peninsula by late Thursday and progressing into Georgia or South Carolina on Friday.