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While this won't be of much comfort for those that are squarely in it's path right now, it is a small bit of good news. Dr. Philip Klotzbach has compiled rankings of both hurricane Irma and Harvey when they made landfall. Compared to the 1935 Labor Day storm, Irma is a distant 7th, tied with the 1928 Lake Okeechobee storm.
© S/V Andromeda / Facebook
The footage was broadcast from the sailing vessel Andromeda on the boat's dedicated Facebook page.
Footage was interrupted on a number of occasions, finally cutting out as the eye of Hurricane Irma was just 20 miles east-southeast of Key West.
Rough seas were seen and strong winds could be heard as the sailor, Ryan Stone, pointed out debris in the water from his docked vessel.
© Twitter@deejayeasyaBefore: Hurricane Irma temporarily changed the shape of the ocean after hitting the Bahamas on Friday
Twitter user @Kaydi_K from Long Island, Bahamas wrote on Friday: 'I am in disbelief right now... This is Long Island, Bahamas and the ocean water is missing!!! That's as far as they see #HurricaneIrma.'
The strange video shows her walking on the exposed ocean floor which is dry and covered in large shells. Another Twitter user tweeted a photo of the exposed beach at a different beach in the Bahamas and showed it was back to normal within less than a day.
Hurricane Irma, which hit the Bahamas on Friday, is so powerful that it has altered the shape of the ocean in Long Island, but it will likely be back to normal by Sunday afternoon.
Pressure in a hurricane's center is low and Irma is so strong that it is pulling water into its core, sucking it away from the ocean, according to the Washington Post.
Comment: Last month the Atlantic Ocean dramatically receded off the coasts of Uruguay and Brazil. See also:
Meteotsunami? Ocean dramatically recedes on South American Atlantic coast as huge waves batter the Pacific side
© Lionel Chamoiseau / AFPOrient Bay on the French Carribean island of Saint-Martin, after the passage of Hurricane Irma.
More than 20 people died as extreme weather barrelled across the Caribbean bringing winds of up to 150mph. Whole neighborhoods have been turned-upside down on islands such as Barbuda, St Barts and the Virgin Islands.
Irma continues to travel west towards Florida, and the US Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has warned that it will bring "life-threatening wind, storm surge and rainfall hazards".
As islanders struggle to come to terms with the natural disaster, and as MSM coverage continues to focus on Florida, here is the latest on the worst-hit Caribbean regions.
Some of these disasters, like Friday's earthquake in Mexico, are natural. Others may end up having a mix of natural and man-made ingredients after scientists examine them. We also always tend to look for patterns and order in chaos, even when they aren't there, psychologists say.
"Nature's gone crazy," mused Jeff Masters, meteorology director at the private service Weather Underground. "Welcome to the future. Extreme weather like this is going to be occurring simultaneously more often because of global warming."
A look at a rough few weeks in North America:
© Saul Loeb / AFPA nearly-deserted beach after residents and visitors evacuated from Miami Beach, Florida, September 7, 2017, ahead of Hurricane Irma.
Seven million citizens have now been ordered to evacuate and at least 51,000 people are staying in shelters in southeastern Florida, according to Florida emergency management officials.
The National Weather Service has warned residents that nowhere in the Florida Keys will be safe when Irma hits, while Florida Governor Rick Scott urged any hold-out citizens Friday night to leave immediately.
Looking at footage from the scene, it appears many have heeded the warnings, as bustling tourist hotspots like Miami seem all but abandoned.
© METSERVICEThe country's been thrashed by lightning as unstable weather takes hold.
MetService meteorologist Tui McInnes said from 6.15pm on Friday to 7.20pm on Saturday, the country was blasted by 2206 lightning strikes as unstable weather took hold.
Most of those strikes had occurred offshore.
In the 24-hour period, Auckland had been hit nine times, the Bay of Plenty was hit 20 times and Westland was hit 163 times, McInnes said.
Hurricane Irma
The video, which is composed of imagery taken by the GOES-16 satellite, shows countless lightning storms crackling within Hurricane Irma day and night as the monster storm churns its way toward Florida.
The movie condenses more than 80 hours of observations — beginning Monday (Sept. 4) at about 8 a.m. EDT (1200 GMT) — into 49 jaw-dropping seconds.
"Of interest in this loop is the lightning within Hurricane Irma itself, particularly around the eye of the storm," officials with the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which operates GOES-16 along with NASA, said in a description of the video.
"Hurricanes don't often exhibit a great deal of lightning, because their winds are mostly horizontal, not vertical," the officials added. "So, the vertical churning within storms that generates lightning doesn't normally happen."
Hurricane Jose strengthened to an 'extremely dangerous' Category 4 storm on Friday with maximum sustained winds of 150mph. This image from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Katia (left), Hurricane Irma (center), and Hurricane Jose (right) on Thursday in the Atlantic Ocean
According to the National Hurricane Center, the storm was 265 miles east-southeast of the northern Leeward Islands at a rapid 18mph.
With winds picking up speed quickly, forecasters fear the storm may be on the brink of reaching Category 5 strength.
Jose is expected to pass near or east of the northeastern Leeward Islands on Saturday and is currently threatening several islands that were seriously damaged by Hurricane Irma.
However, Mr McKenzie said Irma has also slowed down, producing more rain and increasing the chances of flooding.
He also said Met officials are keeping a close eye on Hurricane Jose which has strengthened into an "extremely dangerous" category 4 storm with winds near 150 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The storm sits east of the Leeward Islands and is forecast to move west-northwest into the Atlantic Ocean over the coming days.
Comment: See also: Winds, fire, floods and quakes: Mother Nature's recent nutty run