Jacksonville, Fla. – Hurricane Michael, which devastated the Florida Panhandle last fall, was actually stronger than initially measured, prompting forecasters to posthumously upgrade it from a Category 4 storm to a Category 5, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Friday.
Earlier this month News4Jax revisited the devastation that Michael brought to Mexico Beach, just east of Panama City, six months after the storm came ashore.
NOAA researchers have fully reviewed the data from Hurricane Hunters in the eye of Michael at landfall, radar data and ground observations from damage assessments and they have concluded winds exceeded 157 mph, the threshold for a category 5 hurricane.
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Researchers now believe Michaels maximum winds were 160 mph. That makes Michael was the first Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the United States since Hurricane Andrew in 1992 and only the fourth on record.
This is a rather startling conclusion, which I am sure researchers were not ready to conclude. Yet, the signs were all there.
The overall pattern in the tropics was not very October-like, large amounts of moisture were still present in the atmosphere. This is called precipitable water. Values were far more consistent with August than October. It was also coupled with a strong MJO oscillation (something we will talk about later.)
Two weeks before Michael formed, I was on air discussing the possibility of one more tropical system. The conditions for development were that obvious.
Michael developed slowly at first but then, Michael displayed rapid intensification (RI) a condition which is not all that common. This is where we see the eye completely clears out (no significant clouds) and surface pressures drop very rapidly.
By the time Michael reached Mexico Beach, the internal low pressure inside the eye of Michael had dropped to a level of 919 mb or 27.14", which has only been seen in Category 5 hurricanes (winds greater than 156 mph.)
Then there was the lightning inside the eye wall, where the most violent winds are in a hurricane.
Just before working here at WJXT, I was working in Orlando Florida as another devastating hurricane came ashore. It was hurricane Andrew. As a Category 4 Andrew passed over the Gulf Stream, lightning started popping inside the eye wall.
Andrew exploded with fury over the next few hours.
Andrew's winds we measured, not estimated, at 174 mph at the National Hurricane Center, just as their wind measuring device, called an anemometer, was destroyed.
Andrew's maximum winds were later estimated to be at 175 mph gusts to 200 mph.
Andrew's central lowest pressure was 922 mb.
That brings us back to Michael.
Michael is the first category 5 hurricane to hit the United States since hurricane Andrew (1992) and as mentioned, only the fourth in modern history. The other two were Camille (1969) and the Great Labor Day hurricane in 1936. Back in 1936 hurricanes were not named.
Michael is also the latest Category 5 hurricane to hit the United States, by more than a month.
He made landfall on October 10th a rather scary reality for maybe what's to come in future hurricane seasons.