Energy

Hurricane Irma Has Maintained 185 MPH Winds Longer Than Any Other Storm In the Satellite Era

NOAA National Weather Service National Hurricane Center/Handout via REUTERS

Daily Caller News Foundation logo
Michael Bastasch DCNF Managing Editor
Font Size:

Hurricane Irma has maintained 185-mile-per-hour winds for more than 42 hours, making it the longest-lasting storm of this magnitude in the satellite era, which began in 1966.

In fact, Irma is on its way to being the third-longest-living Category 5 hurricane on record, including the pre-satellite era. Meteorologist Chris Dolce noted Irma would hit number three by 11 am Thursday morning.

Supertyphoon Haiyan of 2013 is the only other tropical cyclone to maintain maximum sustained winds of 185 miles per hour for 24 hours in the satellite era, according to Colorado State University meteorologist Phil Klotzbach.

And that’s not the only record Irma has broken while leaving a trail of destruction as it passes over Caribbean islands on its way towards Florida.

Irma is the strongest Atlantic storm to exist outside the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico, with maximum sustained winds topping 185 miles per hour, according to a fact sheet put together by Klotzbach.

When the Gulf and Caribbean are thrown in, Irma is tied with three other hurricanes — Florida Keys, Gilbert and Wilma — for the second strongest winds in the Atlantic. Hurricane Allen of 1980 had maximum sustained winds of 190 miles per hour.

Irma is also the strongest storm on record to hit the Leeward Islands. Previously, the strongest storms to hit the island chain were the Okeechobee Hurricane in 1928 and Hurricane David in 1979, according to Klotzbach.

Klotzbach also noted Irma generated the most Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) of any tropical Atlantic cyclone on record. ACE is a wind energy index used by hurricane experts to measure and compare different storm seasons, especially in the Atlantic basin.

Irma generated more ACE than the first eight named storms in the Atlantic this season, including Hurricane Harvey that made landfall in Texas as a Category 4 storm in late August. Irma also generated the most ACE in a 24-hour period, beating out Hurricane Allen of 1980.

Follow Michael on Facebook and Twitter

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel