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Hurricane Isaias: NASA night images show lights going out across Florida Panhandle, then returning

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Update: TrendDesh reported on Hurricane Simon off Mexico on 15 October. Isaias is a separate Atlantic storm that hit Florida.

Hurricane Isaias knocked out power across large parts of the Florida Panhandle, and new NASA satellite images published on 16 October 2026 show where the lights went out and how fast they came back. Isaias made landfall near Destin, Florida, on the evening of 9 October as a Category 2 storm with top winds of 105 mph.

Hurricane Isaias: Night lights along the Florida Panhandle coast on 11 October 2026, after Hurricane Isaias
Night lights along the Florida Panhandle coast on 11 October 2026, after Hurricane Isaias Photo: NASA Earth Observatory/Lauren Dauphin (public domain).

How strong Hurricane Isaias was

After a quiet start to the 2026 Atlantic season, Isaias became the season’s first hurricane on 8 October as it moved towards the US Gulf Coast, NASA Earth Observatory said. The storm brought heavy rain and flash flooding to parts of the Southeast, including Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, and its winds toppled trees and brought down power lines. The National Weather Service’s Mobile/Pensacola office confirms the Category 2 landfall near Destin at about 8:30 pm local time. Its post-storm report lists peak gusts of 118 mph at Jay and 116 mph at Oriole Beach, and preliminary reports of one direct and two indirect deaths in its area.

Key Facts

  • Landfall: near Destin, Florida, evening of 9 Oct 2026
  • Strength: Category 2, 105 mph sustained winds
  • Peak gust (NWS): 118 mph at Jay, Florida
  • Satellite: VIIRS on NOAA-20 (Black Marble HD)
  • Lights near normal again by: 14 Oct

What the Black Marble images show about power outages

The images come from NASA’s Black Marble HD product, which uses the VIIRS instrument on the NOAA-20 satellite to detect light at night. One image shows typical lights in August 2026, and the other shows lights on 11 October, after most clouds had cleared. Dark grey, hash-marked areas show where clouds blocked the satellite’s view. Lights dropped sharply around parts of Pensacola and along US Route 98 towards Destin, suggesting wide power cuts. Some spots stayed lit, such as Pensacola International Airport. Ranjay Shrestha of NASA’s Black Marble team said these ‘could reflect backup power systems, differences in electrical infrastructure, or areas that maintained electricity during the storm’, but the images alone cannot confirm why.

Recovery in the Florida Panhandle

By 12 October, lights had started to come back in some areas, and by 14 October the patterns looked similar to conditions before the storm, NASA said. Florida’s state update on 10 October said about 448,298 customer accounts were without power statewide at 7 am that day, and that more than 16,000 linemen and restoration workers had been positioned before the storm. NASA said Black Marble data add to ground-based outage reports rather than replace them, and help responders see where recovery is slow. The NASA Disasters Program is working with FEMA and the US Geological Survey to support the Alabama Red Cross and Alabama’s emergency agency. It will post maps and data on its open mapping portal.

Why It Matters: Night-light images from space show emergency teams which neighbourhoods are still without power when ground reports are patchy.

Also on TrendDesh: Hurricane Simon weakens to 75 mph off Mexico as Baja California Sur told to stay alert · Sentinel-3C sends first images of Italy and Greenland two weeks after launch

Source: NASA Earth Observatory · National Weather Service Mobile · Florida Department of Transportation

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