Two years ago, a hurricane near the coast of Mexico unexpectedly grew to a Category 5 storm from a Category 1 in less than 24 hours, plowing ashore near Acapulco, Mexico, as a dangerous system that killed at least 49 people.
About this time last year, Hurricane Milton surprised forecasters when it ballooned to a Category 5 from a Category 1 storm in just a few hours. Its sustained winds increased by 90 miles per hour in a single day, setting off concerns in Florida, where it made landfall a few days later.
Both were examples of “rapid intensification,” officially defined as when a storm’s sustained winds increase by at least 35 m.p.h. over 24 hours. Hurricane Humberto, now churning in the Atlantic, has had such a jump, with wind speeds rising 40 m.p.h. between late morning on Thursday and the same time on Friday.
By Friday afternoon, Humberto had become a major Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 115 m.p.h.
In cases when a storm forms near shore and then rapidly intensifies, as Otis did near Acapulco, officials and residents can have little time to prepare.
Exactly what causes an individual storm to explode in power can be difficult to pinpoint, though high sea surface temperatures can provide the energy necessary for such growth. Warmer oceans have been tied to El Niño, a recurring global climate pattern, and to human-driven climate change.
John Keefe leads The Times’s Weather Data team, which helps readers understand extreme weather events.
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