If you thought the blizzards on the east coast of the US were bad, take a look at the weather on Saturn! In new images captured by the Cassini Equinox mission, a huge storm system has developed, creating a swirling pattern high in the Saturnian atmosphere.

The storm was first spotted by ace amateur astronomer Anthony Wesley last week. Wesley also captured the jaw-dropping photographs of Jupiter being hit by a comet or asteroid last year, and spotted an errant flash in the Jovian atmosphere this year.

Now, with these close-up pictures of Saturn’s storm courtesy of Cassini, we can see just how bad storms can be on a solar system gas giant.

UPDATE: Phil Plait has also written about the Saturn storm, giving a scale as to the size of the storm system:

That’s one storm I wouldn’t want to be caught in!

Image: Raw photographs of the Saturn storm system (NASA/CICLOPS)