What Hurricane Nate Looked Like from Space (Videos)

Hurricane Nate weakened to a tropical storm after making landfall twice on the U.S. Gulf Coast Saturday (Oct. 7), but its approach as a category 1 storm was captured earlier in the day by satellites operated by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 

The storm first made landfall in southeastern Louisana, near the Mississippi River's mouth, and again near Biloxi, Mississippi before weakening into a tropical storm, according to the New York Times. Video from NOAA's GOES 16 and GOES East satellites captured imagery of Nate as a category 1 hurricane with maximum sustained wind of 85 miles per hour. [Hurricane Photos from Space]

Nate can be seen quickly developing in imagery captured by the NOAA GOES-13 satelite from October 4-7, 2017. 

NASA used its Aqua satellite to map Hurriane Nate in infrared as it approached the Gulf Coast.

"Infrared light provides valuable temperature data to forecasters and cloud top temperatures give clues about highest, coldest, strongest storms within a hurricane," NASA officials wrote in a statement Saturday. "NASA's Aqua satellite provided that data and showed strongest storms were in Hurricane Nate's eastern side."

On Oct. 8, 2017, the MODIS instrument aboard NASA's Aqua satellite analyzed Tropical Storm Nate's cloud top temperatures in infrared light. The strongest areas (in yellow) are seen at the storm's center. (Image credit: NASA/NRL)

Nate was the fourth hurricane in the last six weeks to batter U.S. soil. It follows Hurricane Harvey in TexasHurricane Irma in Florida  and Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico.

Note: Space.com senior producer Steve Spaleta contributed to this report.

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Tariq Malik
Editor-in-Chief

Tariq is the Editor-in-Chief of Space.com and joined the team in 2001, first as an intern and staff writer, and later as an editor. He covers human spaceflight, exploration and space science, as well as skywatching and entertainment. He became Space.com's Managing Editor in 2009 and Editor-in-Chief in 2019. Before joining Space.com, Tariq was a staff reporter for The Los Angeles Times covering education and city beats in La Habra, Fullerton and Huntington Beach. In October 2022, Tariq received the Harry Kolcum Award for excellence in space reporting from the National Space Club Florida Committee. He is also an Eagle Scout (yes, he has the Space Exploration merit badge) and went to Space Camp four times as a kid and a fifth time as an adult. He has journalism degrees from the University of Southern California and New York University. You can find Tariq at Space.com and as the co-host to the This Week In Space podcast with space historian Rod Pyle on the TWiT network. To see his latest project, you can follow Tariq on Twitter @tariqjmalik.