In late August of 1992, Andrew, a category 5 hurricane ripped through the Bahamas, slammed into southern Florida (eye over Homestead), and passed into the Gulf of Mexico to hit Louisiana. Although rather small in diameter, this intense storm was the most costly in U.S. history - estimates as high as $30 billion in damage - even though it took only 43 lives (a tribute to the early warning efficacy of metsat monitoring). Winds in excess of 240 km/hr (150 mph) flattened entire housing developments. This devastating hurricane was well-imaged by a variety of sensors from above and on the ground. Consider:

The top image from NOAA-7shows the hurricane as it strikes land in Florida, with colorized tones representing higher intensities. In the middle is a GOES-7 full earth color view obtained on August 25, 1992 in which Andrew is seen to be approaching New Orleans; this perspective affords an indication of scale, showing the hurricane, while powerful as organized, to still be just another mass of clouds of no greater extent than some others. But, on close-up (bottom) in the AVHRR color version (RGB = 0.9; 1.5R; 3.5 µm) the perfection of the eye and the well-developed structure of this counterclockwise pressure low are obvious.

On March 13, 1993 the "Storm of the Century", shown here in this GOES-7 image, with more intense clouds color-enhanced, struck the eastern U.S. with massive snow falls and high winds.

The writer (NMS) at the time was in Bloomsburg, PA preparing to leave the next day to give a paper at the first Lunar and Planetary Science Conference he had planned to attend since 23 years earlier. It was not to be. Snow locally exceeded 60 cm (24 inches), driven into deep banks by winds. All Interstates within Pennsylvania were closed for two days.

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