The monster's eye: satellite video offers a terrifying view of Irma, 2nd strongest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic

Closeup look at Hurricane Irma's eye, acquired by the GOES-16 weather satellite. (Source: RAMMB/CIRA) As I'm writing this on Wednesday morning, the eye of Hurricane Irma — a “potentially catastrophic” Category 5 storm – has passed over the islands of Barbuda, Saint Barthelemy and Saint Martin, and was shortly headed for the Virgin Islands. I shudder to think what has been happening on the ground with the storm's maximum sustained winds clocked at 185 miles per hour, according to the National Hurricane Center. This video from Saint Martin says it all: https://twitter.com/MeteoExpress/status/905402131481493504 As Irma continues to grind like a buzz saw toward Puerto Rico and eventually Florida, I'll try to post regular updates featuring remote sensing images of the storm. The video at the top of this post is my first installment. It was acquired by GOES-16 as the weather satellite stared into the eye of the monstrous atmospheric vortex. ...