After battering Haiti and Cuba, mass evacuations were being carried out in the US as Hurricane Matthew barrelled towards the Florida and South Carolina coasts on 5 October. In the midst of all the chaos, a scary satellite image of the monster storm is creating a buzz on Twitter.

The sinister infrared image resembling a smiling human skull with a fiery eye was captured by Nasa and shared on Twitter by Stu Ostro, the senior director of weather communications, Weather Channel.

The image was taken by Nasa during the deadly storms landfall in Haiti. "Sinister-looking face of #HurricaneMatthew at landfall in #Haiti," Ostro captioned his Twitter post which was retweeted by many users.

The satellite picture depicts a spooky grey human skull with an eye and teeth in a fiery background. Many social media users compared the image with the fictional character Ghost Riders.

Weather experts have a scientific explanation the scary image. CNN meteorologist Judson Jones explains, "Basically, scientists use color tables to identify the strongest part of the storm." Nasa's atmospheric scientist have claimed that the skull's so called teeth are cold convective clouds of the hurricane.

Here is how Twitter users reacted to the image:

Meanwhile, the storm is set to make landfall in the US between Thursday (6 October) and Sunday. When it hit Haiti, Hurricane Matthew was rated as category 5 and is expected to reduce to category 3 as it reaches the US. On Wednesday the hurricane was travelling at 120mph.

Massive evacuations have been ordered in North and South Carolina, and Georgia fearing its devastating effects. "If you get an evacuation order just remember that you can always rebuild, you can always repair property but you cannot restore a life that is lost and we want to make sure we minimise any possible loss of life or risk to people in these areas," US president Barack Obama said in a press conference on Wednesday.

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