Why Did Hurricane Michael Become Such a Monster Storm So Quickly?

By Megan Gannon, Live Science Contributor | October 10, 2018 01:47pm ET

Forecasters watching Hurricane Michael barrel toward the Gulf coast of Florida earlier this week saw the storm do something "most unusual."

The hurricane intensified despite encountering wind shear —a change in wind speed or direction at different levels in the atmosphere—that might have normally weakened the storm.

"Michael's steady intensification over the past 48 hours in the face of 20-knot [23 mph] westerly shear defies traditional logic," hurricane specialist Stacy Stewart wrote in a memo from the National Hurricane Center on Monday (Oct. 8). "Either the shear calculations are unrepresentative or Michael has become more inertially stable due to its large eye and large outer wind field, making it more shear-resistant."

So how would forecasters typically expect wind shear to affect a storm? That's explained in part by the shape of a hurricane. [Hurricane Season 2018: How Long It Lasts and What to Expect]

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