Hurricane Sally made landfall in Alabama as a Category 2 storm early Wednesday morning (Sept. 16) as satellites monitored the storm from space.
Sally landed near Gulf Shores, Alabama, at about 5:45 a.m. EDT (0945 GMT), according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which caught sight of the landfall using the GOES-East satellite.
The storm's effects are predicted to be severe along the north-central coast of the Gulf of Mexico as Sally dumps huge amounts of rain before crawling north-east, with forecasts suggesting the remnants of the storm will reach South Carolina by Friday (Sept. 18). The storm will dump 10 to 20 inches (25 to 50 centimeters) of rain in places along the Gulf Coast, according to NOAA's National Hurricane Center's forecast.
Related: Satellites track Hurricane Sally ahead of US landfall (and 5 other big storms on Earth)
#HurricaneSally made landfall as a Category-2 storm near Gulf Shores, Alabama around 5:45 am ET with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph. @NHC_Atlantic warns of "catastrophic" and "life-threatening" flooding along portions of the north-central Gulf coast. https://t.co/oFjhusFKWx pic.twitter.com/4aQU3GGwlPSeptember 16, 2020
GOES-East monitors U.S. weather conditions with its partner, GOES-West, which is currently focused on the fires blazing across much of California and Oregon. But when it comes to keeping an eye on the busy hurricane season, GOES-East is also joined by other satellites including NASA's Terra, which carries an instrument called Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) that can image cloud formations.
GOES-East and Terra have plenty of work to do. In addition to Sally in the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Ocean sports two more hurricanes, Paulette and Teddy, as well as Tropical Storm Vicky. The National Hurricane Center is also monitoring three systems that may or may not develop into tropical storms over the next few days.
On Sept. 14, the National Hurricane Center announced that, including Sally, it was monitoring five tropical cyclones in the Atlantic basin, tying a record set in 1971.
Although no individual hurricane is directly caused by climate change, scientists agree that the phenomenon is increasing the overall frequency and severity of storms, particularly by warming the ocean water that hurricanes feed on.
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