Hurricane Ian Was Briefly Category 5 Storm With Winds Of 161 MPH: NHC

FLORIDA — Hurricane Ian, which pummeled Southwest Florida in late September 2021, was stronger than meteorologists initially believed, a new report shows.

Just before making landfall in Florida on the afternoon of Sept. 28, Ian briefly reached Category 5 status, according to a post-storm study released Monday by the National Hurricane Center.

NHC meteorologists reanalyzed data from the storm, which showed that it was actually a powerful Category 5 hurricane seven hours before hitting Florida.

Before this, they believed that, at its peak, Ian was a Category 4 storm with winds of 155 mph — just two mph short of reaching Category 5 classification. Category 5 is the highest status a hurricane can reach on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale

After passing over the Dry Tortugas, the hurricane reached its peak intensity the morning of Sept. 28 while over open waters with winds reaching as high as 161 mph.

Related:

• 2023 Atlantic Hurricane Season Forecast: What It Means In Florida
• Here Are The 2023 Hurricane And Tropical Storm Names
• Lost In The Storm': Pets Missing, Reunited After Hurricane Ian
• Grateful To Be Alive, Hurricane Ian Victims Thankful For Kindness
• Hurricane Ian Rescues: Floridians Brave Storm To Help Neighbors
• Hurricane Ian: Scenes From St. Petersburg After The Storm

“Environmental conditions became less favorable soon thereafter, and Ian weakened slightly during the next several hours before it made landfall on the barrier island of Cayo Costa,” just west of Fort Myers, at 3:05 p.m., the report said.

Ian hit Florida as a Category 4 storm with winds as high as 150 mph. An hour-and-a-half after this, the hurricane’s center made landfall a second time near Punta Gorda with winds reaching nearly 144 mph.

It continued to weaken as it moved northeast across the state’s peninsula, and became a tropical storm with maximum winds of about 69 mph by Sept. 29 at 8 a.m., when the hurricane’s center was over Atlantic waters near Cape Canaveral, the NHC said. It briefly restrengthened, making its final landfall in South Carolina as a Category 1 storm.

Overall, the storm caused more than $112 billion in damage, making it the costliest hurricane in Florida history and the third-costliest in U.S. history. About 150 people died because of Ian, either directly or indirectly.

The agency said the track it issues during a storm usually has an uncertainty of around 10 percent. Ian’s upgrade doesn’t change much, NHC added, noting that “there is very little practical difference between” a Category 4 storm with 155 mph winds and a Category 5 storm with 160 mph winds.

Since meteorologists began keeping records on hurricanes, only 39 have been classified as Category 5 storms with winds of at least 157 mph, according to AccuWeather. Only four of these storms have made landfall in the United States — Hurricane Michael (2018), Hurricane Andrew (1992), Hurricane Camille (1969) and the Labor Day Hurricane (1935).

Michael was also initially thought to be a Category 4 storm when it hit the Florida Panhandle, AccuWeather said. Seven months later, the NHC reported that the storm was also briefly a Category 5 hurricane before making landfall.