Lights Out in Michael’s Wake—Florida Panhandle

  • Released Wednesday, February 12, 2020
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Hurricane Michael from VIIRS and GOES-16

Hurricane Michael made landfall near Mexico Beach, Florida on October 10, 2018. Wind speeds were estimated to be 155 mph, which made the Category 4 hurricane the strongest on record to hit the Florida Panhandle. In April 2019 the National Hurricane Center announced that it had reclassified Michael as a Category 5 storm with 160-mph winds. The storm destroyed homes and knocked out electric power in the area. GOES–16 acquired data for the composite image (left) around 1:00 p.m. EDT on October 10.

After making landfall as a Category 5 storm, Michael knocked out power for at least 2.5 million customers in the southeastern United States. The first pair of images at night shows a natural view of nightlights from the VIIRS DNB on October 6 and October 12. The second pair of images is a data visualization of where lights went out in Panama City, Florida.

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NASA, Earth at Night book

This page was originally published on Wednesday, February 12, 2020.
This page was last updated on Friday, October 11, 2024 at 12:29 AM EDT.