On Tuesday, the National Hurricane Center reported that Hurricane Delta “has rapidly strengthened into a dangerous Category 4 hurricane, with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph.” Meteorologist Dennis Feltgen of the National Hurricane Center confirmed that Delta moved from a Category 2 storm to a Category 4 storm in just two hours, 20 minutes and added that in over 24 hours, Delta increased from 45 mph to 130 mph.
The storm has already claimed a place in the history books and is now the strongest storm ever named for a Greek letter. Storms are named after Greek letters only once the rotating list of 21 storm names assigned to each Atlantic hurricane season has been used up.
Hurricane conditions were experienced along Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula on Tuesday night, and the storm will likely make landfall early Wednesday. The National Hurricane Center is warning those living along the northern Gulf Coast to prepare now for the storm’s arrival.