Hurricane Milton swirls over the Gulf of Mexico. | Image: NOAA
Hurricane Milton strengthened into a Category 5 storm today, becoming one of the most rapidly intensifying storms ever in the history of the Atlantic hurricane season.
It’s likely within the top three fastest storms on record when it comes to rapid intensification, used to describe tropical cyclones with sustained wind speeds that increase by at least 30 knots (roughly 35 miles per hour) in a 24-hour period. Milton has seen an 80-knot increase in wind speed (more than 92 miles per hour) over 24 hours, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said this morning.
“This is almost like three times the threshold that is used. So, yeah, this is definitely off the charts,” Karthik Balaguru, a climate scientist at…