Hurricane Matthew first major US hurricane since 2005
Later today, Hurricane Matthew will likely become the closest major (Category 3-5) hurricane to the U.S. East Coast since Hurricane Wilma made landfall in 2005... which means it could also be the first big tropical storm to hit the U.S. in the social media era.
Assuming it makes it to that point as a Category 3, the runners up were:
- Joaquin 2015, which never hit land
- Sandy 2012, which Category Cat 3 status after passing over Cuba
- Irene 2011 which lost major status around the same spot in the Bahamas
- Earl 2010 which was a Category 3 off the Carolina coast but never hit land
- Gustav 2008 which lost major status in the Gulf
Going further back... (like Hurricane Sandy in 2012) Hurricane Matthew (model consensus forecast) is taking a path never seen before. No hurricane within a 300-mile radius of his current position since 1950 has taken this path.
Assuming it runs along the forecast path, runners up by this measure are:
- David 1979 is the closest match, but it was only a Cat 2 and went inland in Georgia - Cleo 1964 was inland over Florida into Georgia; Floyd 1999 was much further out to sea - Donna 1960 was inland over Florida, then Cat 2 into the Carolinas
Hurricane Matthew is expected to devastate the Bahamas and Southeast U.S. coast, before possibly turning back out to sea and possibly looping around.
When I was blogging about Hurricane Wilma in 2005, YouTube and Facebook had just started up and there was no Twitter. Only 64 out of 100 people had a cell phone. Last year, it was 118 (because of people with more than one).
The storm is no joke and has already killed nearly a dozen people. That fact, however, hasn't slowed down social media, which has generated some memes of interest. This one, which has been passed around for years, was given new credence this morning by the actual model spread forecast for the storm:
A creepy-looking satellite image of Hurricane Matthew as a skull was also spotted; I captured the original NOAA satellite loop from whence it came:
