Florida knew Hurricane Michael was bad. Now, scientists reveal just how strong it was.
With just a little over a month to the start of hurricane season, scientists have upgraded last year’s beast — Hurricane Michael — from a Category 4 to a rare Category 5.
Michael, which devastated Florida’s Mexico Beach when it made landfall on Oct. 10, becomes the first hurricane to make landfall in the United States as a Cat 5 since Hurricane Andrew brought “destruction at dawn” to South Miami-Dade in August 1992.
Michael’s winds were so strong the hurricane blew over a train in Panama City Beach.
Scientists at NOAA’s National Hurricane Center performed a detailed post-storm analysis on Hurricane Michael’s data and determined that the storm’s estimated intensity at landfall near Mexico Beach and the Tyndall Air Force Base was 160 mph, which puts its winds in the top category over a small number of storms at and near the Florida coast.
https://www.bradenton.com/news/state/florida/article229458004.html
