https://apnews.com/article/hurricane-milton-florida-unusual-strong-warm-water-helene-0dd01c0e79d888dbda2a96b68fb62a29

With its mighty strength and its dangerous path, Hurricane Milton powered into a very rare threat flirting with experts' worst fears.

Warm water fueled amazingly rapid intensification that took Milton from a minimal hurricane to a massive Category 5 in less than 10 hours. It weakened, but quickly bounced back, and when its winds briefly reached 180 mph, its barometric pressure, a key measurement for a storm's overall strength, was among the lowest recorded in the Gulf of Mexico this late in the year.