Hurricane Epsilon ties record, eyes Bermuda

Hurricane Epsilon rapidly intensified Tuesday into Wednesday, reaching hurricane strength and tying a record as it cruised northwest over the open Atlantic. Bermudawill be sideswiped by the stormtoday before it becomes a powerfulmid-latitude storm and races east across the ocean.

On Tuesdaymorning, Epsilon was a 45 mph tropical storm; by early Wednesday, it had exploded into a Category 1 hurricane with 90 mph winds. That exceeds the criterion for “rapid intensification” of 35 mph or more in 24 hours.

According to Sam Lillo, a postdoctoral researcher withnoaa, no other storms have exceeded that intensification rate northeast of 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 past hurricane season to date. An ordinary season averages just over a dozen named storms in the Atlantic. If one more named stormforms in2020, 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 stormto rapidly intensify in the Atlantic in 2020. Earlier this month, Delta intensified from a tropical depression with 35 mph winds to a Category 4 with 145mph winds — faster than any previous storm on record. It weakened to a Category 2 storm before lashingmexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, including Cancun, and then southwest Louisiana.

Rapid intensification is likely a product of warming waters in the face of climate change. And more storms will probably undergo rapid intensification in the future, presenting predictive challenges to meteorologists.

NATIONAL OCEANIC AND ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION A photo provided by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Epsilon, which strengthened to a Category 1hurricane late Tuesday. Epsilon marks the 10th hurricane of an intense and active Atlantic storm season that still has more than a month to go.