THG's Hypercane Michael

Hypercane Michael was a super powerful and destructive hypercane that caused widespread destruction from Georgia to Delaware during the month of July. Michael originated from a disturbance over Jacksonville, Florida on July 10, 2019 with rapidly organizing convection, at 2:00 PM UTC. At 5:00 PM UTC, July 10, the disturbance strengthened into a weak tropical storm and was assigned the name Michael by the NHC. Recon was sent out to investigate and found that winds were increasing 10 mph every recon pass, and by midnight on July 11, Michael became a category three hurricane over southeast Georgia, destroying structures and blowing debris hundreds of yards.

By the time hurricane Michael passed just off-shore near Savannah, GA, Michael began to rapidly intensify from a category four hurricane to a hypercane in just a matter of 6 hours, with winds increasing from 150 mph to a record 520 mph and atmospheric pressure dropping 220 millibars, from 930 mbar to 710 millibars between 6:00 AM UTC, July 11th and 12:00 PM UTC. Michael, now a hypercane, curved back onshore and made landfall near Charleston, South Carolina, at 1:30 PM UTC at peak intensity, completely leveling the city and killing over 20,000 people. Michael began to rapidly weaken after making landfall, and completely dissipated just another six hours after landfall.

Hypercane Michael killed over 35,000 people and caused over $1 trillion in damages, becoming the world's first tropical cyclone to cause over a trillion dollars in damage. A warehouse in Charleston reportedly was lifted two miles into the air, and the mangled remains of the warehouse were found 100 miles away in Columbia, SC. Most of the deaths were caused by people being launched into the air like missiles, and a body was found over 50 miles away from the landfall point with massive frostbite injuries. Cars were completely shredded and thrown dozens of miles horizontally, and many were also launched high into the stratosphere, reaching heights of 75,000 feet and speeds of over 600 mph. Wind gusts in the northeast eye wall of Michael reached up to 800 miles per hour, enough to completely drain a lake the size of Manhattan at an average depth of ten feet.