Hurricane Delta Intensifies to Category 4 as It Heads for the Gulf

Friends just call me Ross · October 6, 2020

https://www.accuweather.com/en/hurricane/delta-forecast-to-strike-us-as-major-hurricane/824981

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Delta explodes into Cat 4 storm, will be very dangerous hurricane as it charges Gulf Coast
By Alex Sosnowski, AccuWeather senior meteorologist
Published Oct. 5, 2020 11:10 AM | Updated Oct. 6, 2020 12:42 PM

AccuWeather meteorologists have put the Gulf Coast of the United States on high alert for what could be a disastrous strike later this week by a very dangerous hurricane.

Overnight and through early Tuesday morning, Hurricane Delta escalated quickly into a Category 4 storm and forecasters warn it could strengthen even more before it strikes the Yucatan Peninsula. After that, forecasters expect Delta to emerge over the extremely warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, where it could maintain its strength for a time.

The hurricane’s winds had increased to 130 mph by 11:20 a.m. EDT Tuesday just over 24 hours after it became the 25th tropical storm of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season.

Delta is the first major hurricane to churn over the Atlantic basin during the month of October since Hurricane Michael in 2018. Delta's intensification was the most extreme in 15 years for an October hurricane.

The storm's maximum sustained winds increased by a whopping 70 mph — from 40 mph to 110 mph — in its first 24 hours as a named storm. Only Hurricane Wilma in 2005 exploded in a more significant fashion over that same 24-hour period.

Delta was chugging along west-northwest at 16 mph and was located about 315 miles east-southeast of Cozumel, Mexico, on Tuesday morning.

Satellite images showed that Delta was an incredibly compact hurricane on Tuesday morning. Hurricane-force winds extended outward only up to 25 miles from the storm’s center, but a small eye about 6 miles across had developed, a sign that forecasters said signified rapid strengthening.