FLORIDA — Despite recently being downgraded to a tropical storm, Hurricane Irma broke several meteorological records as it rampaged through the Caribbean and Florida. <br /> <br />CNBC reports that Irma began as a tropical storm, but quickly strengthened to a hurricane in the middle of the Atlantic. It generated the most accumulated cyclone energy by a tropical cyclone ever recorded — more than 18 entire hurricane seasons since 1966. <br /> <br />Irma clocked in 185 mile-per-hour winds for 37 hours, which is the longest time a tropical cyclone has maintained winds of that intensity. <br /> <br />It was the strongest storm to hit the Leeward Islands, the first Category 5 hurricane to hit the Bahamas since 1992, and Cuba since 1924. <br /> <br />It's also the first major hurricane to make landfall in Florida since Wilma in 2005. <br /> <br />The hurricane prompted the largest evacuation in the Bahamas, with 5,000 leaving the islands. Some 6.3 million Floridians were also instructed to evacuate. <br /> <br />With Irma and Harvey just days apart, 2017 also marks the first time the U.S. was hit by two category-4 hurricanes in one season. The combined cost of damage brought about by the storms may also be one of country's most expensive. <br /> <br />Hopefully though, the worst is over, especially since experts say September 10 marks the peak of this year's Atlantic hurricane season.
