Yutu Strongest Storm At Landfall In U.S. Since 1935; 5th-Strongest Global Landfall On Record
An unprecedented super typhoon just became the strongest storm of the year in the country and the worst to hit U.S. soil in more than 80 years.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said Thursday that Super Typhoon Yutu is one of the strongest storms in history after it lashed Tinian and Saipan in the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory. According to Weather Underground, Yutu appears to be the fifth-strongest storm ever to make landfall globally, and the second-strongest ever to hit U.S. soil after only a 1935 hurricane that hit the Florida Keys.
The storm is also tied for the strongest to strike anywhere on earth in 2018 — with winds of around 180 miles per hour, Yutu reached Category 5 intensity by the time it made landfall on Wednesday. Seven of the 10 strongest landfalls in recorded world history have occurred since 2006, a statistic Weather Underground called “ominous.”
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The super typhoon marks a continuation in a bleak pattern for the United States. In only 24 hours, Yutu went from a Category 1 storm to a Category 5, leaving residents with little time to fully prepare. That echoes Hurricane Michael’s swift build-up two weeks ago, when the Category 4 storm slammed the Florida Panhandle, the third-most intense Atlantic hurricane to make landfall in the United States.
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https://thinkprogress.org/category-5-yutu-super-typhoon-hurricane-e33c0ef8d1b5/