The blizzard looks monstrous and beautiful from space

Floating about 250 miles above the Earth offers a unique view of the planet's weather, and NASA astronaut Scott Kelly is taking full advantage.

Kelly shared this incredible photo of monster winter storm Jonas from his lofty perch early Saturday morning:

Kelly, who's spent more than 300 continuous days aboard the International Space Station — and plans to spend a full year there — took the photo shortly before the sun rose over the US East Coast.

You can see the lights of cities diffusing through the thick clouds over what looks like the Washington, DC, region.

Kelly shared the image as a tweet, which exploded with retweets and favorites:

But he was just warming up.

Moving at 17,500 mph inside the space station, which whips Kelly and his colleagues around the world every 90 minutes, he was able to photograph other stunning views of Jonas:

And in another shot of the storm, Kelly pointed out a flash of thundersnow:

Kelly isn't the only one with eyes in the sky looking down on the blizzard, though.

NASA and NOAA also released an incredible new satellite image of the storm Friday morning.

The Suomi NPP satellite captured the photo at about 2:35 a.m. EST on Jan. 22:

At this pace, Jonas stands to rival some of the most historic blizzards on record.

The storm is sweeping across the East Coast through Sunday (Jan. 24), bringing heavy snow, strong gusts of wind, and flooding.

The coastal town of Wildwood, New Jersey, is already seeing waters rise into the street, making snow piles look like icebergs:

The storm has caused a headache of travel delays, airport closures, and dangerous conditions.

The National Weather service has an interactive map that shows the latest snowfall predictions. Below are the areas with the most likely chance to get at least 12 inches of snow over the next three days.

The blue and dark green areas in the middle have the greatest chance, while the yellow and brownish areas at the edges are less likely to get that much snow:

You can check out the map for the latest prediction. And if you're into more gorgeous photos from space, be sure to follow Scott Kelly on Twitter as @StationCDRKelly.

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