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Of the more than 300 hurricanes that have directly hit the United States since 1851, only four made landfall as category 5 cyclones. The powerful Hurricane Ian in September 2022 was not one of them.
The Saffir-Simpson scale divides these phenomena into five categories that depend on the speed of the winds, the storm surge and the expected damage.
To be included in the highest category, ie 5, a hurricane must reach sustained winds of 252 km/h.
It's rare for a hurricane to make landfall in the United States with this intensity: It has happened just four times in more than 150 years, according to the National Hurricane Center.
The four category 5 hurricanes that hit the United States
(Credit: National Bureau of Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
1. 'Labor Day' Hurricane
Until 1953, hurricanes did not receive specific names.
That's why the Category 5 cyclone that hit the Florida Keys in 1935 is generically known as a 'Labor Day' hurricane.
That hurricane formed on August 29 and by September 2 it had become a category 5 cyclone. As it passed through Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas, it lost intensity, until it lost its status category before moving into the Atlantic.
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The cyclone claimed 408 lives in Florida, making it one of the 10 deadliest hurricanes in US history.
2. Hurricane Camille
On August 14, 1969, Camille began to take shape west of the Cayman Islands.
The next day, as it approached Cuba, it was a Category 3 cyclone. Camille became a Category 5 hurricane on August 16, a status it maintained until the next day, when it made landfall on the Mississippi coast.
The cyclone, which left 256 dead in the United States and three in Cuba, lost hurricane status as it passed through Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia and Virginia.
It entered the Atlantic Ocean on August 20.
3. Hurricane Andrew
Andrew formed off the coast of Africa on August 16, 1992, and rapidly strengthened to a tropical storm.
On August 22, Andrew became a hurricane and a day later it had already reached category 4.
When it hit Florida on August 24, it was believed to be a Category 4 cyclone. But in 2002 it was reclassified as a Category 5 hurricane at landfall.
The cyclone passed through Florida and made landfall again in Louisiana, after which it weakened and lost its hurricane status.
Andrew claimed 23 lives in the United States and three in the Bahamas.
4. Hurricane Michael
In 2018, Michael made landfall in Florida as a Category 5 hurricane near Mexico Beach and Tyndall Air Force Base.
Initially it was classified as category 4, but further analysis revealed that the winds had exceeded the threshold defined to place it in the highest category.
Mexico Beach City was devastated by the hurricane.
Of the 1,692 buildings in the city, 1,584 were damaged and 809 destroyed.
The cyclone directly caused at least 16 deaths in Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia.
Why do hurricanes tend to weaken as they make landfall?
When a cyclone passes over the ocean, it feeds on warm, moist air from the sea.
The warmer the air below a hurricane, the more moisture the air can hold, and therefore the more energy available to strengthen the hurricane.
"The ocean supplies the hurricane with moisture, and the hurricane's heat engine converts the latent heat in that moisture into intense winds and rain," Pinaki Chakraborty, a professor at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, explained in 2020.
But once a hurricane makes landfall and is no longer over the ocean, that crucial energy supply that powers the storm is cut off, causing storms to weaken over land.
However, climate change is changing the rules.
According to research published in 2020, in the last 50 years the time it takes for a hurricane to weaken after making landfall has increased by 94%.
In the late 1960s, a typical hurricane lost about 75% of its intensity on the first day after landfall.
By 2020 a cyclone was expected to weaken by only 50% in the first 24 hours after landfall.
This is mainly because human emissions of greenhouse gases have overheated our oceans and atmosphere, and the extra heat means hurricanes are carrying more moisture than in the past, giving them extra fuel to maintain their strength even at high temperatures. hundreds of kilometers inland.
This also explains why they are shedding more rain.
With information from CNN's Drew Kann.
