Hurricane Humberto (2019) (Blackford)

Hurricane Humberto was a destructive and very intense Cape Verde-type hurricane. A Category 5, Humberto and Imelda are often seen as the "twin terrors" of September 2019.

One of the few hurricanes on record to have 3 minute sustained winds of higher than 160 mph, Humberto formed in a unusually favorable environment on September 8.

Meteorological history
On August 27, the NHC began tracking the possibility of the development of a tropical system a few hundred miles east of the Windward Islands in early September.

This was followed up on August 29 with the possibility of another system developing a few hundred miles west of The Gambia.

By September 6, two tropical waves had developed a few hundred miles apart. The western tropical wave entered the MDR on September 8 with very warm waters of as high as 97°F and non-existent wind shear.

The tropical wave took advantage of the environment and developed into a tropical depression early that morning.

A few hours later, the eastern tropical wave developed into Tropical Storm Imelda as the western depression became Tropical Storm Humberto.

Humberto rapidly intensified into a Category 2 hurricane by the early morning hours of September 9, and a visible eye became apparent that afternoon. The storm underwent a very rapid deepening over the afternoon of September 9, becoming a Category 4 hurricane by that evening.

By sunrise on September 10, NHC analysis confirmed winds of 165 mph in the center of the storm as it moved towards the Yucatan. They therefore upgraded the storm to a Category 5 hurricane.

The storm plowed towards the Yucatan as the day went on. By the early afternoon of September 11, hurricane hunters found a minimum central pressure of 889 mbars, as well as 1-minute sustained winds of 180 mph, and 3-minute sustained winds of 165 mph, a near record high for the Atlantic.

The storm made landfall on September 13 as a strong Category 5 hurricane in the Yucatan before stalling right off the coast of the Yucatan on September 14 as a Category 3 hurricane, bringing prolonged effects to the region. The storm then very slowly moved northwestward, re-intensifying into a Category 5 hurricane on September 16.

It attained a second peak intensity on September 17 as it made landfall in Mexico. It managed to remain tropical as it crossed into the Pacific on September 18, where it further weakened to a tropical storm by September 20. A unfavorable environment led to Humberto transitioning into a remnant low on September 22 and then diminishing on September 23.

Retirement
Due to the extensive damage, intensity and high death toll of Humberto, the WMO retired it in Spring 2020, it was replaced by Hanna for use in the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season.