Hurricane Michael upgraded to Category 5

Source: NOAA/NHC

The National Hurricane Center just released a press briefing stating that they have upgraded the category for Hurricane Michael that hit the Florida panhandle in October of 2018.

In their statement they said the following that made the determination

Scientists at NOAA’s National Hurricane Center conducted a detailed post-storm analysis on all the data available for Hurricane Michael and have determined that the storm’s estimated intensity at landfall was 140 knots (160 mph). This final wind intensity is a 5 knot (5 mph) increase over the operational estimate and makes Michael a category 5 storm on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale at the time of landfall on October 10, 2018, near Mexico Beach and Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida.

Courtesy: US Coast Guard

Michael is the first hurricane to make landfall in the United States as a category 5 since Hurricane Andrew in 1992, and only the fourth on record. The others are the Labor Day Hurricane in 1935 and Hurricane Camille in 1969. Michael is also the strongest hurricane landfall on record in the Florida Panhandle and only the second known category 5 landfall on the northern Gulf coast.

Michael produced devastating winds and storm surge and was directly responsible for 16 deaths and about $25 billion in damage in the United States.