Hurricane categories, visually explained

As Hurricane Helene approached Florida, it grew from a tropical storm to a Category 4 hurricane. What does that mean? Amudalat Ajasa, Aaron Steckelberg, and Julie Hoban, reporting for The Washington Post, illustrate the hurricane categories with an animated model that starts peacefully and then suffers through each level.

As a Californian, I’m more familiar with earthquakes and wildfires, so this was helpful.

Helene is still moving through as of this writing, and The Post has a tracker with a projected path.