The rural, sparsely populated area, far from the resorts and beaches that draw tourists to the state, has not experienced a Category 3 hurricane since 1950. Before that, the only other Category 3 storm was in 1896.
“The thing that makes [Idalia] a little bit unusual is that it hit a part of the Florida coastline which has experienced very few hurricane-level landfalls in the last hundred years,” said hurricane professor Kerry Emanuel, who teaches at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
While climate change is not believed to be increasing the raw number of hurricanes, it's widely believed to be leading to more intense storms.
“The ocean temperature in the Gulf of Mexico this time of year is exceedingly warm, it’s like bath water,” said Jamie Rhome, the acting director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Hurricane Center in Miami. “Waters have been slightly warmer than normal this year and that’s ample fuel for any hurricane to move across and strengthen.”
Read more in a full report at TheHill.com.
