Where Hurricane Michael ranks
Bottom Line: A week ago there were some clouds hanging out in Central America. A week later Hurricane Michael made landfall as the 6th strongest hurricane in recorded history. At the time of landfall, the top sustained winds were 155 mph. While it’s the strongest to hit the panhandle going back to recorded history in 1851, it only missed being a top five storm by 5 mph.
Strongest Hurricanes at time of landfall in the US:
1. "Labor Day" 1935, 185 mph
4. Andrew 1992, 165 mph
5 "Okeechobee" 1928, 160 mph
You might hear reports that it was a top 5 hurricane, it wasn’t, it was a top five named hurricane. Hurricane names started being issued in 1953.