Hurricane Michael October 2018
Hurricane Michael made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane near Mexico Beach, Florida on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 10th, 2018 with sustained wind speeds up to 160 mph.[1] Michael is the strongest hurricane landfall on record in the Florida Panhandle and only the second known Category 5 landfall on the northern Gulf coast.[3]
Climate change affects hurricane activity and amplifies the damages in several ways including: (1) increasing the rainfall that drops during the storm, (2) increasing sea surface temperatures which in turn raises the maximum potential energy that a storm can reach, and (3) elevating storm surge, via sea level rise, which extends the storm's reach along low-lying areas. The seas over which Michael traveled before landfall were up to 3.6°F (2°C) warmer than the historical average, a significant increase.[2]