One-time monster Hurricane Irma has weakened to just a remnant circulation over Alabama but has left behind a plethora of astonishing weather records and statistics.
Below are some of the most stunning numbers that help quantify the magnitude of this storm and its impact, from the eastern Atlantic Ocean to Florida to Georgia and South Carolina.
16 million
The number of customers potentially without power in the Southeast, the most of any hurricane on record, doubling the 8.1 million in Superstorm Sandy. The 15 million outages in Florida represents three-quarters of its population.
Totals by state:
15 million outages in Florida
800,000 outages in Georgia
270,000 outages in South Carolina
142 mph
The peak wind gust in Naples, Florida.
Other top gusts in the United States:
Buck Island, U.S. Virgin Islands: 131 mph
Marco Island, Florida: 130 mph
Big Pine Key, Florida: 120 mph
Culebra, Puerto Rico: 111 mph
Miami International Airport: 99 mph
Key West, Florida: 94 mph
Cape Canaveral, Florida: 94 mph
Key Largo, Florida: 92 mph
Fort Myers, Florida: 89 mph
St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands: 87 mph
Jacksonville, Florida: 86 mph
Fort Lauderdale, Florida: 78 mph
Clearwater, Florida: 77 mph
Charleston, South Carolina: 66 mph
Atlanta: 64 mph
Savannah, Georgia: 60 mph
Gatlinburg, Tennessee: 60 mph
159 mph
The peak wind gust recorded outside the United States, in Falla, Cuba.
Barbuda, in the northern Lesser Antilles, clocked a gust of 155 mph before its wind sensor failed.
185 mph
Irma’s peak maximum sustained wind as it approached the northern Lesser Antilles. This tied as the second-most intense Atlantic hurricane with Hurricane Wilma in 2005, Hurricane Gilbert in 1988 and the 1935 Florida Keys hurricane. It trails only Hurricane Allen in 1980, which had winds of 190 mph.
8 feet
The storm surge on Amelia Island (Fernandina Beach).
Other storm surge levels:
Jacksonville, Florida. (Mayport Beach): 6 feet (biggest on record)
Naples, Florida: 5 feet
Charleston, South Carolina: 4 feet (third biggest on record)
Miami: 4 feet
Fort Myers, Florida: 4 feet
Tampa and St. Petersburg, Florida: 2 to 3 feet
16 inches
The highest rainfall total in the United States, reported in Fort Pierce, Fla.
Other top totals:
Gainesville, Florida: 12 inches
Naples, Florida: 12 inches
Melbourne, Florida: 11 inches
Jacksonville, Florida: 11 inches
Fort Myers, Florida: 10 inches
Fort Lauderdale, Florida: 10 inches
Orlando, Florida: 9 inches
Savannah, Georgia: 7 inches
Charleston, South Carolina: 6 inches
37 hours
The number of hours the storm maintained maximum wind speeds of at least 180 mph, longer than any storm on Earth on record, passing Super Typhoon Haiyan, the previous record-holder (24 hours).
914 millibars
The pressure the storm dropped to on Sept. 5, (the lower the pressure, the stronger the storm), ranking as the lowest of any storm on record outside the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico in the Atlantic basin. Irma’s landfall pressure of 929 millibars in the Florida Keys was the lowest for any U.S. landfalling hurricane since Katrina (920 millibars) and for a Florida landfall since Andrew (922 millibars). It ranks as the seventh-lowest pressure of any U.S. landfalling storm.
3 days
The length of time the storm remained a Category 5 hurricane, the longest since weather satellites began monitoring weather systems in 1966.
Credit to tropical-weather expert Phil Klotzbach for some of the statistics in this post.
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