Hurricane topples record for intensifying

Storm expected to hit Bermuda on Thursday

Hurricane Epsilon rapidly intensified Tuesday and Wednesday, unexpectedly flirting with major hurricane status and claiming a record as it cruised northwest over the open Atlantic. Bermuda will be side-swiped by the storm Thursday before it becomes a powerful mid-latitude storm and races east across the ocean.

On Tuesday morning, Epsilon was a 72-km/h tropical storm. By early Wednesday, it had morphed into a Category 1 hurricane with 144 km/h winds. It surprised meteorologists when it intensified into a high-end Category 2 hurricane with 177 km/h winds early Wednesday afternoon, with a chance that it will reach major hurricane status as a Category 3.

That significantly exceeds the criterion for “rapid intensification” of 56 km/h or more in 24 hours. Epsilon jumped at least 80 km/h in that same time frame.

According to Sam Lillo, a researcher with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, no other storms have even approached that intensification nearby Epsilon's current position so late in the season.

The unsettling achievement marks the latest toppled record in what can only be described as a rambunctious hurricane season. Epsilon is the 26th named storm to form in the 2020 season, which has outpaced every other hurricane season to date. An ordinary season averages just over a dozen named storms in the Atlantic. If one more named storm forms in 2020, it will tie the mark for most storms in any Atlantic hurricane season on record, set in 2005.

Rapid intensification occurs when atmospheric and ocean conditions foster a period of explosive development within a tropical storm or hurricane. Weak upper-level winds allow the storm to mature in its vertical structure, while warm sea surface temperatures provide the fuel to support its organization. Epsilon is the seventh named storm to rapidly intensify in the Atlantic in 2020.

On Monday, Epsilon was struggling against wind shear — a change of wind speed and/or direction with height. That worked to tear apart the system, displacing the bulk of any shower and thunderstorm activity to the east of the exposed low-level centre of circulation.

But on Tuesday, Epsilon got its act together with thunderstorms blossoming over the core. A well-formed eye emerged Tuesday night.

In the coming days, Epsilon, which was 650 kilometres east-southeast of Bermuda midmorning Wednesday, will skirt Bermuda with tropical storm conditions.

After slipping east of Bermuda on Thursday, Epsilon should charge north and transition into a high-latitude storm. Over the weekend, it is expected to become a very powerful ocean storm and stir up the seas of the North Atlantic near Iceland.