Hurricane Don (2017) (Michael0311)

Hurricane Don was the fourth storm, third hurricane, and second major hurricane in the hyperactive 2017 Atlantic hurricane season. The storm badly damaged the Bahamas, Florida, and the main impact center was in Georgia and South Carolina, as it was the strongest storm to hit the place for decades.

Meteoroligical History


Don started as a tropical depression in the center of Cape Verde, from the same wave that emerged on May 30 and split into three: Long-lived Bret, short-lived Cindy, and the infamous Don. The waves that would become Bret and Don were aided by another weak but large and vigorous tropical wave that the two took energy from to stay convective through shear, and the wave merged with the two as the shear stopped, allowing for the two to gain strength, and Bret gained strength faster, briefly halting Don's strengthening, and the two interacted for a short time. Then, they broke free and moved away from each other. Don, now relived from the halting, began to strengthen, finally becoming a hurricane after four days. It was Category 2 after a few days, and went from Category 2 to Cateory 3 in a day. 1.5 days (one and a half days) later it reached 135 mph, prompting it's upgrade to a Category 4.It was unchanged and therefore its peak was forecast at it's strength, but it unexpectedly jumped to 150 mph in six hours, and it had reached Category 5 status for less than a second and almost immediatlly weakened back to a 150 mph Category 4, as it was too short to notice, the true peak was never noticed and the peak was kept at 150 mph. It started to crawl towards Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. Once it was fully inland, it stalled again, but soon had weakened to a Category 3 and gained speed. It weakened quickly, exiting land as a Category 1 and briefly weakened to a tropical storm agian. It regained strength, becoming a Category 1, and after a day, it regained Category 2 status for six hours, then it began to die off, as it had become post-tropical the next day, completed extra-tropical transition by June 29, and mantianed that for less than a day before weakening to a remnant low for the last six hours of it's life.