Hurricane Irma: Is it the strongest storm ever?

There is no doubting that this is an active hurricane season. But words like "strongest ever" and "category 6" have been thrown around lately, and I wanted to dive deeper into the facts to see what is true and what is not. So I looked to reports from Phil Klotzbach, a research meteorologist at CSU specializing the Atlantic hurricane development. To me, this is the "go-to" guy for all the facts on hurricanes. 

 

Here is what has been said and what is actually true. What we do know is that Hurricane Irma is one of the strongest hurricanes on record, but it not actually the strongest, unless you are talking about location. Irma has maximum winds of 185 miles per hour. This ties with Gilbert in 1988 and Wilma in 2005. But the strongest winds ever recorded were actually from Allen in 1980 with maximum sustained winds of 190 miles per hour.

 

 Irma's 185 m.p.h winds are the strongest winds to exist in the Atlantic, excluding the Gulf of Mexico or Caribbean. The Gulf and Caribbean have warmer and shallower water, allowing for strength. It is in these areas that Wilma, Gilbert, and Allen all reached their peak wind speeds. Irma is reaching these wind speeds in the deeper (and typically cooler) waters of the Atlantic, making it the strongest in the Atlantic waters. A little detailed, perhaps, but still notable. 

 

Another new record set by Irma is the longevity of it's 185 m.p.h. maximum sustained winds. As of 1:00 a.m. EST Irma's winds maintained 185 m.p.h for 35 hours straight. This is the longest any cyclone has kept that intensity since Typhoon Haiyan for 24 hours in 2013. As of 5:00 a.m. EST Irma's winds are now at 180 miles per hour.

 

Now the latest talk is about how many hurricanes are active in the Atlantic at one time. On Wednesday, both Katia and Jose formed bringing the total to 3 hurricanes at one time. While this is uncommon, this has happened before back in 2005 and 2010.