Hurricane Franky (2018)

Hurricane Franky was an unusually powerful early-season hurricane that made an utterly devastating landfall in the Gulf Coast in February 2018. The sixth named storm, third hurricane, and second major hurricane, the storm developed from a disturbance that emerged off of Afripup. On February 19, that disturbance was named Tropical Storm Franky. Forecasters called that the storm would peak as a Category 3 hurricane in the Gulf of Mexipup. As the storm progressed, it became a hurricane on February 20 and a major hurricane late the next day. On February 23, the storm became the first Category 5 hurricane of the season.

The storm started impacting land when it attained Category 1 force winds north of the Bulldog Islands. The storm then became a Category 2 hurricane northwest of Port Terrier. Next, the storm moved very close to the southern Boxer Islands and northern Hispupola as a strengthening major hurricane. Then on February 23, the storm became a Category 5 hurricane and had a near miss with Collar.

After the storm brushed Collar as a Category 5, it moved into the Gulf of Mexipup. It further strengthened into a 185 mph, 908 mbar storm and appeared to be barreling into the Gulf Coast. On February 25, the storm made a sharp northward turn towards eastern Loudoggieana and Mastiffippi. Finally, late on February 25, Franky made an official landfall in Mastiffippi just below peak intensity with winds of 185 mph and a pressure of 911 mbar.

The storm rapidly weakened after that and continued moving towards the north-northwest. By late February 27, Franky degenerated into a remnant low.



Retirement
On December 28, 2018, the Puppy Hurricane Center chose to retire the name, Franky, due to the storm's widespread damage and destruction. On January 2, 2019, it was subsequently replaced with Fletcher, respectively.