iStockphoto / Elen11
Audio By Carbonatix
Violent weather storms have been the theme of the week across the heartland of America this week and the Southeastern United States also got hit with storm cells which produced multiple tornadoes across several states. The weather was so extreme that Col. Anne McClain was able to see them from outer space.
Aboard the International Space Station, Col. Anne McClain, an Army Test Pilot and NASA astronaut, captured this truly surreal footage. What strikes me the most is the width of the lightning flares.
These aren’t isolated lightning strikes. And while they might not be on the scale of the longest lightning strike ever recorded (477 miles from Texas to Mississippi), the space view of these thunderstorms is incredible.
A nighttime pass over the Eastern and Southern United States. I was astounded at the scale of recent thunderstorms … some of these flashes are as large as cities! pic.twitter.com/fsdJjMo20Q
— COL Anne McClain (@AstroAnnimal) May 21, 2025
She also shared one-off photos on X (formerly known as Twitter). Here we can see the isolated lightning flares in all their magnificent glory:
This is what lightning looks like from the top down, all taken in the Alabama and Georgia regions. @astro_Pettit developed this photo technique, which was further practiced and passed on to me by my crewmate @Astro_Ayers.
The photos are taken at 120 frames per second, and the… pic.twitter.com/HVbVT0OQNY
— COL Anne McClain (@AstroAnnimal) May 21, 2025
I don’t know about you all, but when I look up at storm clouds (here in Florida) I fail to grasp how that storm cell might stretch hundreds of miles. We get fast and violent weather here in Florida and that probably warps my view of fronts, but I never consider that these southeastern storms are so huge they can be seen like that from the International Space Station.