Hurricane Michael
Photo: AP

Hurricane Michael made history Wednesday becoming the most powerful storm to hit the United States since Andrew made landfall on the southern tip of Florida as a category five storm in 1992.

Although not quite as powerful as Andrew, Michael packed a deadly punch as a category four with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph. Not only that, Michael continues to be an extremely dangerous weather system as it makes its way across the southern United States still as a category one storm.

So far the storm has claimed one life when a tree collapsed on a man’s house killing him. Meanwhile more than 388,000 homes are without power while man thousands are more than likely homeless as a storm surge ripped houses from their foundations and strong winds tore the roofs off structures.

However what was perhaps one of if not the most dangerous aspect of the storm was the limited time people had to prepare. Unlike Hurricane Florence which hit the south eastern coast of the United States last month, forecasters were able to get a better and longer look at her movement off the African coast. Unfortunately, Michael which formed over the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico strengthened quickly and left less time to mobilize a more detailed plan ahead of its landfall.

Via NBC News:

For more than a week before it made landfall, meteorologists were sounding alarm bells about Florence, the devastating hurricane that slammed into the Carolinas on Sept. 14.

Yet with Michael — the powerful hurricane that made landfall as a Category 4 storm in the Florida Panhandle on Wednesday — word of the storm came just days in advance.

The reason why, according to forecasters: Unlike Florence, which formed off of Africa long before it arrived on U.S. shores, Michael just originated in the southwest Caribbean — closer and fewer days before landfall.

Still, Michael was “no surprise,” according to NBC News meteorologist Sherri Pugh.

“The position difference changes your forecast lead time,” she said. “That’s why we could see Florence coming across. We were tracking what it would be for days. With Michael, we still had the same amount of information; it just formed closer.”

Hurricane season typically starts in June, peaks around Labor Day and will finish up in November. What may have offered a little more guidance in terms of the strength Michael packed was when and where it formed. Considered a ‘late-season’ storm, Michael’s incarnation within the Gulf of Mexico wasn’t surprising. Typically later season hurricanes will  form out of the Gulf instead of off the western coast of Africa like we see earlier in the season. What’s also somewhat typical is a storm that can organize itself quickly within the Gulf due to it’s shallow, warmer water temps.

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