Hurricane Laura, which has already killed 23 people, is expected to make landfall near the Texas-Louisiana border on Thursday.- Astronaut Chris Cassidy photographed the storm from the
International Space Station . - Laura is the latest in a record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season.
As a tropical storm, Laura caused major floods and killed at least 23 people in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. And that was before its wind speeds reached hurricane levels.
Laura became a category 4 hurricane on Wednesday, and it's big, as images from space show.
NASA astronaut and former Navy SEAL Chris Cassidy captured a bird's-eye view of the storm on camera on Tuesday and Wednesday from the International Space Station, 240 miles above Earth's surface.
—Chris Cassidy (@Astro_SEAL) August 26, 2020
Hurricane Laura's sustained wind speeds have hit 140 mph, and could pick up even more before it makes landfall near the Louisiana-Texas border on Thursday.
"Texas and Louisiana will experience destruction for numerous hours,"
Laura is the latest in a record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season
Hurricane Laura is the 13th named storm in this year's Atlantic hurricane season, which the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecasted to be "extremely active."
And indeed it is. Storms are named in alphabetical order based on when they form, and nearly every named storm this year has been the earliest on record with that starting letter. For instance, a typical "I" storm forms around October 4. But this year, Tropical Storm Isaias (which became a hurricane) came more than two months before that, on July 29.
The National Hurricane Center doesn't even offer an average date for storms whose names start with "L" because they so rarely occur at all.
A typical season has about 12 named storms, six of which become hurricanes.
In addition to the 13 named storms that have already formed, NOAA has predicted the season will see six to 12 additional named storms before it comes to an end in November. If the season winds up at the upper edge of that forecast, with 25 named storms, it would be eclipsed only by the 2005 season, which had 27.
Climate change is making hurricanes stronger and more frequent
Hurricanes are increasing in intensity due to climate change, and they are expected to grow even stronger and more frequent as the planet continues to warm.
Because hurricanes use warm water as fuel, they have more to feed on as ocean temperatures rise. Research from NOAA shows that each new decade over the last 40 years has brought an 8% increase in the chance that a storm turns into a major hurricane.
Climate change is also making storms slower and wetter: Over the past 70 years, the speed of hurricanes and tropical storms has slowed about 10% on average, according to a 2018 study. Slower hurricanes, like Dorian last year, linger longer over the same area, causing greater damage.