In just a few short hours on Monday, Hurricane Milton grew from a Category 1 to a Category 5, the strongest rating on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which classifies hurricanes based on their wind speed.
Milton formed as a tropical storm on Saturday afternoon and became a hurricane on Sunday just before 2 p.m. Eastern.
It remained a Category 1 until early Monday morning, when the National Hurricane Center announced around 5 a.m. Eastern time that the storm had been elevated to a Category 2 hurricane.
About two hours later, the Hurricane Center said that Milton had become a Category 3, with winds of 120 mile per hour.
Just after 9 a.m., Milton had grown to a Category 4 hurricane.
And just before noon on Monday, Milton became a Category 5, with winds of 160 m.p.h., according to data from the Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter, which flew through the storm to collect data.
Milton’s wind speeds had increased by 90 m.p.h. in 24 hours. Only two hurricanes had intensified faster, Wilma in 2005 and Felix in 2007, according to the National Hurricane Center’s records for the Atlantic Ocean.
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