Hurricane Matthew Rewrites the Record Books

Hurricane Matthew was a very long lived storm that intensified rapidly and posted record numbers along its path.

Matthew formed early on Wednesday, September 28 as a tropical storm moving west near the Windward Islands in the Caribbean. Matthew grew into a category 1 hurricane just 13 hours later and continued its rapid intensification. Matthew reached it’s peak strength late Sept. 30 into early Oct. 1 when it reached Category 5 strength with 160 mph winds.  Matthew first made landfall in Haiti and then Cuba as a Category 4 hurricane killing hundreds in Haiti.  This deadly hurricane continued north through the Bahamas as a Category 4 and then Category 3 major hurricane. From the Bahamas, Hurricane Matthew continued on northward,  impacting the southeastern United states making initial landfall on the coast of South Carolina as a Category 1 hurricane. Continuing along the South Carolina and North Carolina coastlines as a Category 1 hurricane before moving east into the Atlantic Ocean as a post tropical cyclone.

Matthew was one for the record books and here are a few of the statistics that stand out from this historic storm.

• 3rd strongest rapid intensification in the Atlantic on record: 80 mph intensification in 24 hours
• Longest-lived Category 4-5 hurricane in the eastern Caribbean on record
• 1st time on record that a major hurricane has made landfall in Haiti, Cuba and the Bahamas
• 1st Category 4 hurricane to make landfall in Haiti since 1964 (Cleo)
• 1st Category 4 hurricane to make landfall in Cuba since 2008 (Ike)
• 1st Atlantic tropical cyclone starting with the letter “M” to make U.S. landfall as a hurricane
• Maintained major hurricane strength for 7.25 days