Hurricane Michael (2018 - Hype - Scenario 1)

Hurricane Michael was an extremely powerful, but short-lived hurricane that devastated Florida and brought flooding rains all the way up the Eastern Seaboard. The system killed 94 people directly and caused around $7.64 billion in damages.

Meteorological history
In early October, a monsoonal gyre was present in the Caribbean. The large, sprawling disturbance would then be monitored for potential development by the National Hurricane Center. The disturbance would gradually organize over the next few days before becoming Tropical Depression Fourteen near the Yucatan peninsula on October 7 at 06z. Fourteen rapidly strengthened into a tropical storm and was given the name Michael. The storm would initially be large and sprawling like its predecessor disturbance, due to the size of the system its strengthening was gradual until it neared the warmer sea surface temperatures of the Gulf of Mexico. This area of increasingly warmer sea surface temperatures helped Michael become a hurricane by 18z on October 8. Michael would continue to strengthen, reaching category two strength at 06z, October 9 after hurricane hunters found winds of 90 kt (105 mph) at the surface along with a pressure of 969 millibars. Just six hours later at 12z, the storm would strengthen even further with winds now at 105 kt (120 mph) and a pressure of 958 millibars. Structurally speaking, the system was very intense looking with a powerful eyewall and marked outflow along with a clearing eye. The system would then rapidly intensify to a powerful category four hurricane with winds of 130 kt (150 mph) after the eye cleared out more and the hurricane hunter planes found surface winds of that intensity. Michael would continue to deepen in pressure, reaching its peak surface pressure of 925 millibars on October 10 at 06z. However, despite the intense low pressure of the system, the winds never exceeded 150 mph. Shortly after peak intensity, the system started to degrade in appearance due to increasing wind shear from a frontal trough over the Ohio Valley. The hurricane would gradually weaken to a category three hurricane with winds of 125 mph later that day at 18z before making landfall in Florida shortly thereafter. After sustaining hurricane-force winds for 12 hours while inland, the system would weaken to tropical storm intensity while nearing South Carolina. The now Tropical Storm Michael would continue on its northeasterly track before eventually becoming an extratropical cyclone near New Jersey, which would ultimately completely dissipate by 00z on October 13 over Massachusetts.