Oklahoma Tornado Images Captured By NASA Satellite [VIDEO]

A NASA satellite captured some incredible footage from Monday's destructive tornado in Oklahoma. The orbital camera on the GOES-13 satellite imaged the movement of storm systems in the south-central United States as they developed into the Moore, Okla. tornado that leveled blocks of homes and left at least 24 dead.

The satellite is operated by NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), who placed it into "rapid scan operations" mode, which allowed it to capture images every five minutes instead of every 30.

"The added frequency greatly assists meteorologists in understanding rapidly evolving weather events, such as the tornadoes that struck Oklahoma," NOAA explained in a video caption.

The tornado reached strengths of EF-4, with wind speeds between 166 and 200 mph. It wreaked a path of destruction over 20 miles long through the Oklahoma City metropolitan area.

According to officials at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the video NOAA posted shows the storm system that generated the tornado towards the end. The GOES-13 video also pictures storm systems that created other twisters in the Midwest during the time between Monday afternoon and Monday evening. Several of these tornadoes were spotted in Kansas, Iowa, and Oklahoma, with the storms extending from Texas all the way up to Minnesota.

Residents in Moore were warned of the tornado risk for several days by the local National Weather Service offices. The official tornado warning was issued 16 minutes before the tornado was formed.

Incredibly, this latest tornado was the fourth to hit Moore directly in the past 14 years. It was also the first twister reported in Iowa since May 2012.

You can see the video below, courtesy of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.