Hurricane Isaias’ leftovers became a powerful storm that whipped past Iceland, NASA images show

A satellite image captured on the afternoon of Oct. 14 shows a spiral of cloud wrapped around Iceland, and NASA says the storm behind it began as Hurricane Isaias. After coming ashore in Florida as a Category 2 hurricane on Oct. 9, the system crossed the North Atlantic and deepened into a low whose central pressure fell by more than 50 hectopascals in 24 hours.

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The picture, which NASA lists with credit to Michala Garrison, came from the VIIRS instrument aboard the NOAA-21 satellite, and NASA’s Earth Observatory published it as an Image of the Day on Oct. 21. The story behind it covers a storm that changed its structure on the way across the ocean and still arrived in Iceland with hurricane-force gusts.

From a Florida landfall to a North Atlantic low

NASA’s Earth Observatory describes the event plainly. In its own words, “The powerful low-pressure system formed over the North Atlantic out of the remnants of Hurricane Isaias.” The caption was written by Lindsey Doermann, with the image processed by Michala Garrison. According to the page, the remnants rode the jet stream east and became what meteorologists call an extratropical cyclone, a storm that draws energy from temperature contrasts in the air rather than from warm ocean water alone.

That origin matters because Isaias was an unusual storm even at the start. The Earth Observatory’s earlier coverage records that it became the first hurricane of the 2026 Atlantic season on Oct. 8, then made landfall near Destin, Florida, on the evening of Oct. 9 with maximum sustained winds of 105 mph. NASA’s nighttime-lights comparison of the Florida Panhandle showed sharp drops in light around Pensacola after landfall, consistent with widespread power outages that began easing by Oct. 12.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration had flagged the scale of the storm before it arrived. In an Oct. 9 Today in Energy article, the agency wrote that Isaias “will be the largest storm system to make landfall in the region since Hurricane Helene” in September 2024. EIA also reported that platforms and rigs in the Gulf of Mexico had been evacuated ahead of landfall, a reminder of how much energy infrastructure sits in the path of a Gulf hurricane.

A pressure drop twice the bombogenesis threshold

The number that makes the Iceland image stand out is the pressure drop. NASA reports that the storm’s central pressure fell by more than 50 hectopascals in 24 hours, about double the threshold for bombogenesis, the term for explosive deepening of a mid-latitude low. A falling barometer means a strengthening storm, and a fall that fast usually brings a tight pressure gradient and the strong winds that follow.

NASA adds a record question. Some meteorologists believe the low may have set a new October low-pressure record for Iceland once readings are corrected for altitude, possibly beating a mark from 1963. The Earth Observatory presents that as a belief held by some forecasters, not a confirmed record, so it stays a possibility rather than an established fact.

VIIRS on NOAA-21 sees the whole spiral

The imagery itself comes from a polar-orbiting satellite. The Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite, or VIIRS, flies on NOAA-21, part of the Joint Polar Satellite System. NASA credits the data to its EOSDIS LANCE near-real-time service and the GIBS and Worldview tools, which let researchers and the public pull up the same scene within hours of capture. The image is a reminder that the satellite sees the pattern of the storm, while pressure readings and gust measurements come from weather stations on the ground.

Because the image was taken on the afternoon of Oct. 14, it freezes the storm as it brushed past the island.

Gusts of 205 km/h and ferry cancellations

On the ground, NASA reports that a gust of 205 km/h (128 mph) was recorded near the Eyjafjallajökull volcano in southern Iceland, while a small offshore island recorded sustained winds of 150 km/h (93 mph). Damaging winds spread to northern Iceland, where sleet and snow were also expected. Iceland’s public broadcaster RÚV reported on Oct. 14 that the low was pushing very stormy and wintry conditions into the north of the country, and its photograph showed a roof blown off a house in Siglufjörður.

The effects reached Scotland as well. According to NASA, northwestern Scotland had gusts up to 90 km/h (55 mph) on Oct. 14, strong enough that ferry routes were cancelled. The same remnants that had flooded the Florida Panhandle days earlier were therefore disrupting sea crossings on the other side of the Atlantic, a path that shows how a single tropical system can leave marks on two continents. NASA’s account draws on reports from the BBC, the CIMSS Satellite Blog, Weather & Radar and RÚV, all dated Oct. 14, so the wind figures come from forecasters and news organizations rather than from the satellite alone.

One timing detail is worth keeping straight. The storm passed Iceland on Oct. 14, while NASA’s publication of the image came a week later, on Oct. 21. Readers looking for current conditions should treat the Iceland event as past, with the pressure and gust figures describing what the Earth Observatory and its cited sources recorded on that day.

This article was produced with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Morning Overview editors prior to publication.

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