Hurricane Michael

Hurricane Michael is a weakening tropical cyclone tracking over South Carolina, United States of America. With a minimum central pressure of 919 mbar (hPa; 27.14 inHg), Michael was the third-most intense hurricane to make landfall on the United States, behind the 1935 Labor Day hurricane and Hurricane Camille of 1969, the strongest hurricane to ever make landfall in the Florida Panhandle, as well as the fourth-strongest landfalling hurricane in the United States mainland by wind speed.

The thirteenth named storm, seventh hurricane, and second major hurricane of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season, Michael originated from a broad low-pressure area in the western Caribbean Sea. The disturbance became a tropical depression on October 7, after nearly a week of slow development. By the next day, Michael had intensified into a hurricane near the western tip of Cuba as it moved northward. Strengthening continued in the Gulf of Mexico, first to a major hurricane on October 9, and further to a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson scale. Approaching the Florida Panhandle, Michael attained peak winds of 155 mph (250 km/h) as it made landfall near Mexico Beach, Florida on October 10, becoming the first to do so in the region as a Category 4 hurricane, and also the strongest storm of the season. As it moved inland, the storm weakened and began to take a northeastward trajectory toward the Chesapeake Bay.

By October 10, at least nineteen deaths had been attributed to Michael and its precursor, including thirteen in Central America and six in the United States. In Cuba, the hurricane's winds left over 200,000 people without power.

Meteorological History

Early on October 2, the NHC began monitoring a broad area of low pressure that had developed over the southwestern Caribbean Sea. While strong upper-level winds initially inhibited development, the disturbance gradually became better organized as it drifted generally northward and then eastward toward the Yucatán Peninsula. By October 6, the disturbance had developed well-organized deep convection, although it still lacked a well-defined circulation. The storm was also posing an immediate land threat to the Yucatán Peninsula and Cuba. Thus, the NHC initiated advisories on Potential Tropical Cyclone Fourteen at 21:00 UTC that day. By the morning of October 7, radar data from Belize found a closed center of circulation, while satellite estimates indicated a sufficiently organized convective pattern to classify the system as a tropical depression. The newly-formed tropical cyclone then quickly strengthened into Tropical Storm Michael at 16:55 UTC that day. The nascent system meandered before the center relocated closer to the center of deep convection, as reported by reconnaissance aircraft that was investigating the storm. Despite moderate vertical wind shear, Michael proceeded to strengthen quickly, becoming a high-end tropical storm early on October 8, as the storm's cloud pattern became better organized. Continued intensification occurred, and Michael attained hurricane status later on the same day.

Shortly afterwards, rapid intensification began to ensue as very deep bursts of convection were noted within the eyewall of the growing hurricane, as it passed through the Yucatán Channel into the Gulf of Mexico late on October 8, clipping the western end of Cuba, while a 35 nmi (65 km) wide eye was noted to be forming. The intensification process accelerated on October 9, with Michael becoming a major hurricane at 21:00 UTC that day. In addition, the central pressure in the eye was noted to have dropped about 20 mb (0.59 inHg) in the span of 6 hours into the first hours of October 10. Rapid intensification continued throughout the day as a well-defined eye appeared, culminating with Michael achieving its peak intensity at 18:00 UTC that day as a high-end Category 4 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph (250 km/h) and a minimum central pressure of 919 mbar (27.14 inHg), as it made landfall near Mexico Beach, Florida, ranking by pressure as the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane to ever make landfall in the United States.

Once inland, Michael began to rapidly weaken, as it moved over the inner Southeastern United States, with the eye dissipating from satellite view, weakening to a tropical storm roughly twelve hours after it made landfall.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Michael