2018 Hurricane Michael Upgraded to Category 5 at Landfall

[malaise]

https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/Hurricane-Michael-Upgraded-Category-5-Landfall?cm_ven=cat6-widget
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In its full report on devastating Hurricane Michael, published Friday, the NOAA/NWS National Hurricane Center found that Michael was a Category 5 storm with top sustained winds of 140 knots (160 mph) when it smashed ashore near Tyndall Air Force Base in the Florida Panhandle on October 10. In the U.S., Michael is being blamed for 16 direct deaths, 43 indirect deaths, and damages of $25 billion.

Michael intensified at a heart-stopping rate while moving through the eastern Gulf of Mexico, rocketing from Category 1 to Category 4 strength in just 24 hours less than a day before landfall. At the time it moved ashore, Michael was officially classified as a top-end Category 4, with top sustained winds of 155 mph—just 2 mph short of the Cat 5 minimum.

Hurricane Andrew: 145 kts (165 mph) landfall at Homestead, Florida, on August 24, 1992
Hurricane Camille: 150 kts (175 mph) landfall at Pass Christian, Mississippi, on August 18, 1969
Labor Day Hurricane: 160 kts (185 mph) landfall at Long Key, Florida, on September 2, 1935
Like Michael, Andrew was initially classified as a high-end Category 4 at landfall, but was subsequently upgraded to Category 5 in post-season analysis. In Andrew’s case, the upgrade from 140-mph to 160-mph peak landfall winds did not occur until a review completed in 2002, a full decade after Andrew struck. In a similar 2014 reanalysis, Camille's winds were downgraded from 190 to 175 mph, but the storm remained a Category 5.

Michael's upgrade means that the U.S. was hit by two Category 5 storms in 2018, since Super Typhoon Yutu made landfall on Tinian in the U.S. Northern Mariana Islands on October 25 with 180 mph winds. Category 5 landfalls have also occurred in two other U.S. territories in the past: by Typhoon Karen in Guam (1962), and by the San Felipe Segundo hurricane in Puerto Rico (1928).

[patricia92243]

1. Good grief! I nearly had a heart attack. I thought the OP was saying a

hurricane was headed our way. Glad to see I was wrong.

[malaise]

2. Let me edit