Weather Gallery:
Earth
Hurricane Isabel as seen from the International Space Station by Astronaut Ed Lu in 2003. The image shows the eye wall of what became the second major hurricane of 2003, producing wind speeds of around 160 miles per hour.
The Northern Hemisphere Jet Stream - a narrow zone of high-speed winds typically found at altitudes of 8-12 km above the Earth - can be seen crossing Cape Breton Island in the Maritime Provinces of Eastern Canada. The Jet Stream results from temperature contrasts between polar and tropical regions and can reach speeds of up to 290 km/h from west to east.
This photograph was acquired in February 1984 by an astronaut aboard the space shuttle and shows a series of mature thunderstorms located near the Parana River in southern Brazil where warm temperatures and moisture-laden air is abundant. A number of overshooting tops and anvil clouds are visible at the tops of the clouds. Storms of this magnitude can drop large amounts of rainfall in a short period of time, causing flash floods.
 
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