abstract
| - Hurricane Rudolph started out from a vigorous tropical wave in the eastern Atlantic near the Cape Verde Islands on August 24, 2018. It started moving westward into favorable conditions and quickly devloped into a tropical depression. The NHC gave the first advisories on Tropical Depression 17. It continued to strengthen, transitioning to a tropical storm, earning the name Rudolph and becoming the 18th named storm of the hyperactive 2018 hurricane season. The storm started heading northeast then turned, and entered the warm waters of the Caribbean. Rudolph explosively strengthened to Category 4 status in less than 30 hours. Rudolph then strengthened further to Category 5 status. Rudolph struck Florida head-on as a monstrous Category 5 with 1 min sustained winds of 185 mph, bringing torrential rain, wind, and huge 25 ft storm surges. Orlando was instantly soaked in 10 ft of rain, and Miami nearly disappeared from the map. At least 400 deaths were confirmed, and Disney World was partially destroyed. Rudolph reached a peak intensity of 190 mph and a record minimum pressure of 890 mbar around August 29. Moderate wind shear disrupted the system as it entered the Gulf of Mexico, causing it to weaken a little. It then made the second U.S. landfall in Texas as a strong Category 4 hurricane with winds of 155 mph. Houston received around 8 ft of flooding, and at least 270 people were confirmed dead or missing. Rudolph continued to weaken, and by September 2, it had weakened to a small-sized, high-altitude tropical storm. NHC gave Rudolph it's final advisories on September 3. Rudolph then collided with another weather system in Mississippi on the evening of September 4. The system moved out to sea and dissipated. Damage summed up to a whopping $204 billion, nearly twice the amount of the damage that Hurricane Katrina caused in 2005. It is one of the deadliest, strongest, and the most costliest hurricane to hit the U.S.
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