Hurricane Idalia, which has triggered evacuations as it threatens to pummel the northern reaches of Florida, is being fueled by unusually high temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico, part of a trend of extreme marine heat that has dominated the summer.
Idalia has churned across the Gulf of Mexico as a category 1 storm but is expected to strengthen to a category 3 event by the time it crunches into Florida’s western coast on Wednesday, making it the first hurricane to hit the US this year.
