The spooky aura about Hurricane Mathew has been augmented by a creepy satellite image of the destroyer which resembles a sadistic grinning skull.
The image posted by Weather Channel's senior meteorologist Stu Ostro on Tuesday has dumbfounded the online world even as the monster storm made landfall in defenceless Haiti.
According to Daily Express, Meteorologist Matt Devitt from the WINK News team in Florida said the skull appeared during his weathercast.
"I can confirm this satellite image of Matthew's landfall is REAL and not photoshopped," he added.
Other meteorologists were also shocked and expressed their astonishment as the image took the internet by storm.
"Frightening satellite image of Matthew looking like a skull as it struck Haiti..." said Local 33 and Fox 44 meteorologist Mark Stitz, as reported by Daily Express.
Ellen Bacca, WOOD TV meteorologist, said that the "spooky" image of Matthew shows the smiling skull had a red glowing eye.
Speculations were quick to follow as the image went viral. While some people feared that the skull image could be a "bad omen" as the hurricane heads towards Florida, others were dismissive, saying too much attention was being given to the image and not to the destruction in Haiti.
CNN meteorologist Judson Jones explained the image by saying that scientists use colour tablets to determine the strongest part of a storm and in this case grey, black and red colours were chosen.
An atmospheric scientist at NASA's Earth Science Office also told CNN that the skull's "teeth" are nothing but cold convective clouds.
Hurricane Matthew is by far the most powerful Atlantic tropical storm in almost a decade.
The hurricane killed at least 19 people in Haiti and six others elsewhere in the Caribbean. Thousands of people have been displaced. Haiti's presidential election scheduled for this weekend has also been postponed.
Matthew is currently heading towards the US states of Florida and South Carolina.
