Double hurricanes threaten East Coast as Humberto rages to Category 5

Hurricane Humberto has become a Category 5 storm with devastating winds reaching 160 mph as it nears the East Coast.

The National Hurricane Center (NHC) announced that the major storm reached this most severe level of tropical cyclone Saturday afternoon, surging by more than 50 mph in the last day alone.

Humberto is expected to remain a major hurricane through Tuesday, when it is projected to reach its closest point to the US, close enough to deliver intense surf, flooding, and deadly rip currents along East Coast beaches.

Humberto’s 160 mph sustained winds are considered ‘catastrophic,’ possessing the ability to damage structures, infrastructure, and the environment, even if the storm remains at sea.

Matt Devitt of WINK News in Southwest Florida revealed that this is first time in 92 years that there have been multiple Category 5 hurricanes in back-to-back years during the Atlantic hurricane season.

Humberto joined Hurricane Erin, which also did not make landfall this summer, but did bring coastal flooding to the mid-Atlantic.

However, forecasters are more concerned with another storm system now feared to strengthen into a hurricane right over the US mainland.

NHC has been tracking Tropical Depression Nine, which they believe will turn into Tropical Storm Imelda by Sunday.

Saturday morning, ‘Imelda’ developed into a tropical depression, the first stage of a tropical cyclone, where a low-pressure area forms with and relatively low winds.

It’s currently forming off the coast of Cuba with sustained winds of 35 mph, and meteorologists predict that the storm will move straight up the East Coast, passing Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas.

The latest forecast from NHC officials warn that Imelda will turn into a hurricane right as it approaches the Georgia and South Carolina coasts.

‘I can’t rule out a hurricane at landfall along with significant flooding as it could slow down or even stall,’ Devitt warned in a post on X on Friday.

Current spaghetti models for the storm show Imelda is expected to reach the Southeast coast and then join Hurricane Humberto out in the Atlantic, turning away from land at the last moment.

However, some storm tracks warn that a hurricane landfall in either Florida or Georgia is still a possibility.

A spaghetti model shows the different possible paths a tropical storm or hurricane might take, based on predictions from multiple weather computer programs.

Each line represents one model’s guess about where the storm could go. If the lines are close together, it means most models agree on the path, and the prediction is more certain.

Currently, meteorologists do not expect Hurricane Humberto to reach the US coastline, adding it will eventually turn out to sea like Hurricane Gabrielle did earlier in September. 

Meanwhile, AccuWeather senior meteorologist Chad Merrill told the Daily Mail that Imelda’s ‘legacy will be flooding.’

The veteran forecaster predicted that Imelda could severely impact the Carolinas next week, bringing ‘heavy rain and severe flooding’ to areas ravaged by Hurricane Helene a year ago.

Moreover, hurricane forecasters have been bracing for a potential Fujiwhara Effect, which takes place when two major cyclones get so close to each other that they start to interact.

The storms might rotate around a common point between them, like two hurricanes doing a slow dance.

In some cases, a stronger storm, like Humberto, might absorb a weaker one, creating an even more massive weather event than either storm would have been on their own.

If they’re similar in size and strength, however, they might repel each other and get thrown in completely different directions that forecasters won’t be able to project beforehand.