NASA just released terrifying footage of Hurricane Patricia from space

Astronaut Scott Kelly tweeted out this incredible image of Hurricane Patricia on October 23, taken while the space station floated over the 190-mile-per-hour storm:

Hurricane Patricia is set to impact Western Mexico late Friday or in the early hours of Saturday, October 24.

The massive storm should dissipate fairly quickly after it makes landfall in Mexico, but the Texas coast will likely see lots of rainfall this weekend. You can keep track of the storm by on NOAA's National Hurricane Center website.

Here's another shot from Kelly:

Patricia rapidly intensified over the last 30 hours, from about 80 mph to its top speed of 200. It is now the strongest hurricane in the southeast Pacific Ocean ever recorded.

Some experts are saying it's so strong it should be labeled as a Category 7 storm, even though the scale only goes up to 5. That puts Hurricane Patricia on the same level as Super Typhoon Haiyan which devastated the Philippines in 2013.

Cameras mounted on the space station, which orbits about 250 miles above Earth also captured some terrifying footage of Hurricane Patricia which is headed straight for Mexico:

NOW WATCH: The strongest hurricane on record, with 200 mph winds, could be 'unimaginably catastrophic' for Mexico

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