NASA Image Shows Hurricane Beryl Slamming Into Texas

Hurricane Beryl has been snapped from space as it smacked into the Texan coast on Monday morning.

The hurricane had previously hit Category 5 strength as it moved across the Caribbean and claimed at least 11 lives as it battered Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Venezuela, and Jamaica.

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The storm was a Category 1 hurricane at the time of hitting Texas, having re-intensified to a hurricane from a tropical storm after it blustered through Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula during the weekend. It has killed at least 3 people in Texas, according to the Associated Press.

The NASA picture was taken using the ABI (Advanced Baseline Imager) on NOAA's GOES-16 (Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite-16).

"There is a continuing danger of life-threatening storm surge inundation along the coast of Texas from Mesquite Bay to Sabine Pass, including Matagorda Bay and Galveston Bay," the National Hurricane Center said in a Monday morning advisory just before the hurricane hit.

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"Considerable flash and urban flooding is expected today into tonight across portions of the middle and upper Texas Gulf Coast and eastern Texas."

Wind speeds of up to 80 miles per hour were recorded as the hurricane made landfall, and between 6 and 8 inches of rain were seen over Houston. Some areas of the city saw a month's worth of rainfall in only two hours, with flash floods being seen in poor drainage and low-lying areas.

Around 400,000 people lost power on Monday morning as a result of the storm, and several schools across the state were closed in anticipation of the tempest. As of Tuesday morning, over 2 million people across Texas are without power, according to PowerOutage.us.

Beryl formed on June 28 and intensified into a hurricane incredibly quickly, becoming a Category 4 strength hurricane by June 30 and a Category 5 on July 1. The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale defines a hurricane as having wind speeds of at least 74 mph, with Category 4 storms seeing winds of 130-156 mph and Category 5 storms having 157 mph winds or higher.

It is rare for storms this powerful to be seen at this time of year—Beryl is the strongest July hurricane ever measured and the first Category 4 to be seen in June. It is also now the record-holder for the earliest Atlantic Category 5 storm ever recorded, beating out Hurricane Emily, which hit Category 5 in July 2005.

Since hitting the Texas coast, Beryl has downgraded in strength first to a tropical storm and then again to a tropical depression. It is currently moving across the lower Mississippi Valley into the Ohio Valley.

"Maximum sustained winds are near 30 mph (45 km/h) with higher gusts. Little change in strength is forecast during the next 48 hours," the NHC said in a public advisory on Tuesday morning.

Flood watches are in place in parts of northern Arkansas, eastern Oklahoma, central and southern Missouri, Illinois, northern Indiana, and southern Michigan, and there are a large number of tornado warnings across Texas, Arkansas, and Louisiana.

"Heavy rainfall will result in scattered flash flooding today into tonight from portions of the lower and mid Mississippi Valley into the Great Lakes. The rainfall and flash flood risk will move into portions of the Northeast on Wednesday," the NHC said in a forecast discussion on Tuesday morning.

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