Hurricane Humberto, which struck the Texas-Louisiana coastline yesterday, has now been confirmed as the fastest growing storm on record. Humberto originated as a tropical depression on Wednesday evening, forming near the Gulf of Mexico, but by the following morning had already strengthened into a category one hurricane as it headed towards land. Humberto delivered heavy rain to the coast, and winds of up to 85mph (137kph) which knocked out the power to more than 100,000 residents.
Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami have been amazed by the speed in which Humberto developed, “we have never had any tropical cyclone go from where Humberto was to where Humberto got, growing from a tropical storm into a hurricane in just 16 hours.” Normally this process takes a number of days, so this is considered exceptionally fast.
Several hours after Humberto formed, Tropical Storm Ingrid became the ninth named storm of the hurricane season. Currently tracking east of the Lesser Antilles, forecasters do not expect the storm to pose any serious threat, expecting it to weaken before it makes land
