Hurricane Michael made landfall near Panama Beach, FL on October 10. Michael was the third strongest storm in terms of minimum pressure to ever hit the US, and the strongest to ever hit in October. With maximum winds of 155mph, Michael ravaged much of the Florida Panhandle and even parts of Georgia. Now, you may not have heard much about this Michael, but it was much stronger than Hurricane Florence, a storm that hit the Carolinas a few weeks ago.

So how does Michael compare to Florence? Michael was a much more powerful and destructive hurricane than Florence was, but Michael wasn’t talked about to nearly the same amount as Florence, because it was short lived before hitting land, and Michael really wasn’t expected to become so strong. Four days before landfall, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) predicted Michael to make landfall as only a tropical storm, so a strong Category 4 hurricane caught everybody off guard.

Right before it struck the Carolinas, Florence slowed down significantly, so while it wasn’t extremely strong, catastrophic rainfall totals were recorded in many places. Michael, however, was moving rather quickly around landfall, meaning that rainfall wasn’t as big of an issue as it was with Florence. Extreme winds and catastrophic storm surge from Michael still ripped apart structures and trees. Both storms were extremely disastrous in different ways, but of the two, Michael was the more destructive storm. Its 155 mph winds and catastrophic storm surge almost leveled entire beach cities on the panhandle.

It is mid-October now, so it’s becoming less and less likely any more powerful hurricanes form. Both of these storms caused widespread damage to where they made landfall, but luckily, this season wasn’t as bad as last season, which had storms ravage the Caribbean, Southern US, and even parts of Central America. Names from last year such as Harvey, Irma, and Maria will be remembered for many generations, so you can say we were lucky this year. Still, Michael and Florence will leave scars on the areas they hit for years to come.