“We are in new territory. The historical record, going back to 1851, finds no Category 4 hurricane ever hitting the Florida panhandle.” What could be the worst hurricane of the season “quickly sprang from a weekend tropical depression,” and now Michael is making landfall just shy of Category 5 status.

+ Bloomberg: “Hurricane Michael made landfall on the Florida Panhandle Wednesday, with 155 mile-per-hour winds establishing it as the strongest storm to hit the continental U.S. since 2004.”

+ Here’s the latest on the storm from CNN.

+ “The good news is that floods and storms don’t kill as many people as they once did … The bad news is everything else.” NYT: Why the Wilder Storms? It’s a ‘Loaded Dice’ Problem.

+ These days, it’s hard to talk about climate change without igniting a political battle (a reality that’s scarier than the scariest weather pattern). So some scientists found a new place to chat and spread the word. From The Verge: How A Fortnite Squad Of Scientists Is Hoping To Defeat Climate Change.