What was once a broad cluster of storms in the Caribbean on Monday slowly coalesced into a hurricane on Wednesday. On Thursdaymega swerte, the intensity ramped up.

In less than a day, Helene transformed from a Category 1 hurricane Thursday morning to a Category 4 storm on Thursday afternoon, which would make it the strongest ever to hit the Big Bend coast of Florida.

Anticipating the forecast earlier this week, Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher at the University of Miami, called it “a pretty aggressive intensification.”

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