Hurricane Michael was a storm for the ages

This chart shows every Atlantic storm tracked by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration since 1987, including Hurricane Michael. The higher the line within each year, the higher the recorded wind speed.

By the numbers: Hurricane Michael exploded from a tropical storm to a near-Category 5 hurricane in just four days — that's why the chart shows such a rapid increase in wind speed. It hit the Florida panhandle with the third-lowest atmospheric pressure of any storm ever to hit the continental United States (919 millibars), and was among the five strongest by sustained winds at landfall (155 mph).