Record-breaking hurricane Matthew causes devastation

Hurricane Matthew re-wrote the record books across the Caribbean and southeastern United States in early October 2016, leaving behind a trail of devastation. Aided by warm waters in the Caribbean and along the Gulf Stream, Matthew brought strong winds, heavy rains, and high seas to Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, the Bahamas, and the eastern seaboard of the United States from Florida to Maryland.

Matthew’s origin from normal storm to Category 5 monster

Matthew became a tropical storm close to the Lesser Antilles on September 28, and for several days tracked west as a tropical storm. The storm became named a Category 1 hurricane on September 29. After this relatively slow start, Matthew grew extremely strong, extremely quickly. In the 24 hours after September 30, Matthew intensified from a storm with 80mph winds to a Category 5 behemoth with 160mph winds.

Matthew was the first Category 5 storm in the Atlantic since 2007, and it was the lowest latitude Category 5 hurricane in the Atlantic on record. All of which was even more unusual as it took place in the eastern Caribbean Ocean, a location which has been dubbed a “hurricane graveyard”—a place where low-pressure systems have routinely failed to develop into hurricanes.

https://www.climate.gov/news-features/event-tracker/record-breaking-hurricane-matthew-causes-devastation