Hurricane Harvey: NASA Views From Space Show Storm's Massive Scale (Video)

AUSTIN, TX — From the periphery, it's difficult to grasp just how massive Hurricane Harvey is. But seen from space, the sheer size of the monstrous hurricane is fully captured, looking like it might swallow the whole of Texas.

NASA released a video of the hurricane as it barreled toward Central Texas from the vantage point of the International Space Station. The footage was captured at around 6 p.m. on Thursday, well before Friday's landfall.

Words sometimes are inadequate to convey something so haunting, and of such breathtaking scale. Rather than attempt to describe it, here's the video:

For good measure, the astronaut on board, Marine Corps Col. Randy Bresnik, tweeted a pair of photos for good measure. Along with the photos, a message of goodwill that somehow managed to alleviate the anxiety among those bracing for the hurricane's full force: "God bless you, Texas, may you weather the storm as you always have!"

NASA has also tracked the evolution of Hurricane Harvey for added perspective. For that timeline, click here.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration did its share in breaking down the reality of a hurricane that could be viewed as an abstraction to those outside Texas. With one of its WP-3D Orion "hurricane hunter" aircraft, the agency transmitted images from the eye of the storm.

Time-lapse video of the aircraft's unique trajectory shows it initially being shaken about from Harvey's winds and being pelted with rain before stabilizing in the eerily calm surroundings of the cyclone's epicenter.

Harvey was downgraded to a Category 3 hurricane early Saturday after briefly achieving Category 4 status, but that doesn't mean it's not dangerous—the differential between the two scales about five miles per hour. Some perspective: Hurricane Katrina was a Category 3 hurricane, and it killed 1,836 people.

Mercifully, Harvey was downgraded to a Category 2 storm by 3 a.m. CST. But forecasters predicted it would still be a major rain event, with some 40 inches of rain expected to be dumped in some areas.

Predictions of Harvey's wrath are dire: Some $20 billion in property damage; 20 trillion gallons of rain dumped; months, and even years, of recovery; the inevitability of death. As of early Saturday, no deaths had been reported, but the attendant rainstorms fueled by the hurricane in the coming days is the most concerning after-effect.

Like during Katrina, it's the resulting flooding that is at the forefront of residents' concerns—particularly those living along the Texas Gulf Coast that have the misfortune of living amidst ground zero of the monstrous hurricane's landfall. Forecasters are no longer predicting rain amounts in inches, but in feet.

The full effect of the hurricane is yet unknown, the cyclone meandering menacingly across the landscape poised to strike at any moment. And like Katrina, thousands are hunkered down and hoping, praying, for the best.

Harvey Could Be The Strongest Hurricane To Hit The US Since 2005

>>> Uppermost image: Hurricane Harvey on Wednesday, Aug. 23, (left) and Friday, Aug. 25, via NASA