Rapid intensification: the biggest one-day jumps in wind
The largest one-day jump in wind in the Atlantic best track belongs to Wilma (2005): 95 knots, or 110 mph, in the 24 hours to October 19, 2005. In the eastern Pacific, Patricia (2015) gained 105 knots in a day. Rises of 30 knots or more in 24 hours, which forecasters call rapid intensification, show up in 65% of Atlantic hurricanes and 72% of Pacific hurricanes since 1966.
How the rise is measured here
The best track gives wind every six hours. For each storm this site compares every record with the one exactly 24 hours earlier, both while the system was tropical or subtropical, and keeps the largest increase. Winds are stored in five-knot steps, so the rises come in steps of five too. Extra records added at landfall or at peak intensity are left out, which keeps every comparison on the same six-hour grid.
The biggest 24-hour rises in the Atlantic
| Storm | Rise | In knots | 24 hours to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wilma (2005) | 110 mph | 95 kt | October 19, 2005 |
| Felix (2007) | 100 mph | 85 kt | September 3, 2007 |
| Milton (2024) | 90 mph | 80 kt | October 7, 2024 |
| Matthew (2016) | 85 mph | 75 kt | October 1, 2016 |
| Erin (2025) | 85 mph | 75 kt | August 16, 2025 |
| Storm 2 of 1932 | 80 mph | 70 kt | August 14, 1932 |
| Storm 3 of 1935 | 80 mph | 70 kt | September 3, 1935 |
| Ike (2008) | 80 mph | 70 kt | September 4, 2008 |
| Maria (2017) | 80 mph | 70 kt | September 19, 2017 |
| Eta (2020) | 80 mph | 70 kt | November 3, 2020 |
| Lee (2023) | 80 mph | 70 kt | September 8, 2023 |
| Storm 9 of 1948 | 75 mph | 65 kt | October 5, 1948 |
Recent storms dominate the top of the list: 17 Atlantic storms since 2015 gained 50 knots or more in a day, among them Milton (2024), Matthew (2016) and Erin (2025). Older entries such as Storm 2 of 1932 come from reanalysis of sparse observations and are less certain.
The Pacific list
| Storm | Rise | In knots | 24 hours to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patricia (2015) | 120 mph | 105 kt | October 23, 2015 |
| Pacific Storm 10 of 1957 | 110 mph | 95 kt | October 21, 1957 |
| Linda (1997) | 105 mph | 90 kt | September 12, 1997 |
| Otis (2023) | 105 mph | 90 kt | October 25, 2023 |
| Jova (2023) | 90 mph | 80 kt | September 7, 2023 |
| Kiko (1983) | 85 mph | 75 kt | September 2, 1983 |
| Virgil (1992) | 85 mph | 75 kt | October 3, 1992 |
| Elida (2002) | 85 mph | 75 kt | July 24, 2002 |
Patricia (2015) went from its first tropical-storm record to its peak, the strongest in either file, in 60 hours. Otis (2023) rose 90 knots in the 24 hours ending one hour before it came ashore in Guerrero at Category 5.
The three largest Pacific rises belong to Patricia (2015), Pacific Storm 10 of 1957 and Linda (1997), at 105, 95 and 90 knots. By decade, the Pacific share of hurricanes with a 30-knot day ranges from 65% in the 1980s to 78% in the 2020s, with no steady climb in between.
Where it happens, and how close to land
For the 270 Atlantic storms since 1966 with a rise of 30 knots or more, the end of their largest one-day rise lay in the Gulf of Mexico (taken here as 18 to 31°N and 81 to 98°W) for 73 of them, 27%, and in the Caribbean Sea box south of it for 45, 17%. The rest intensified over the open Atlantic.
The Gulf share matters because the coast is never far. Across the whole file, 83 storms with a United States hurricane landfall had their largest one-day rise end no more than 48 hours before that landfall. Since 2015 the list holds 11 storms, and 7 of them reached the coast as major hurricanes. For each of them, the largest one-day rise of the storm's whole life ended within two days of reaching the coast:
| Storm | US landfall | Largest 24-hour rise | Ended before landfall |
|---|---|---|---|
| Harvey (2017) | Texas | 45 mph | 27 hours |
| Nate (2017) | Louisiana | 45 mph | 12 hours |
| Michael (2018) | Florida | 40 mph | 42 hours |
| Hanna (2020) | Texas | 35 mph | 4 hours |
| Laura (2020) | Louisiana | 65 mph | 6 hours |
| Zeta (2020) | Louisiana | 45 mph | 3 hours |
| Ida (2021) | Louisiana | 70 mph | 5 hours |
| Idalia (2023) | Florida | 45 mph | 6 hours |
| Debby (2024) | Florida | 40 mph | 11 hours |
| Francine (2024) | Louisiana | 35 mph | 4 hours |
| Helene (2024) | Florida | 60 mph | 3 hours |
How common is it
Rapid intensification is not an exotic event in the record. Among Atlantic storms since 1966 that reached Category 4 or 5, 96 of 98 had at least one such day, nearly all of them. The share among all hurricanes moves from decade to decade without a clean line.
Mexico's Pacific coast
The same pattern shows on the Pacific side. Of the 46 Pacific storms with a hurricane landfall record in Mexico, 31 had their largest one-day rise end within 48 hours of that landfall, 67%. The table lists those whose rise reached 65 knots or more.
| Storm | Landfall | Largest 24-hour rise | Ended before landfall |
|---|---|---|---|
| Patricia (2015) | Jalisco | 120 mph | 17 hours |
| Otis (2023) | Guerrero | 105 mph | 1 hour |
| Virgil (1992) | Michoacán | 85 mph | 27 hours |
| Pauline (1997) | Oaxaca | 80 mph | 36 hours |
| Willa (2018) | Sinaloa | 80 mph | 44 hours |
| Kiko (1989) | Baja California Sur | 75 mph | 12 hours |
| Kenna (2002) | Nayarit | 75 mph | 28 hours |
| John (2024) | Guerrero | 75 mph | 3 hours |
How big the jumps get
Thirty knots is the threshold, but many storms go far beyond it. Among Atlantic hurricanes since 1966, 14% gained 50 knots (about 60 mph) or more in a single day and 2% gained 70 knots or more. In the eastern and central Pacific the shares are higher, 22% and 3%. The middle hurricane's largest one-day rise is 30 knots in the Atlantic and 35 knots in the Pacific, so a typical Pacific hurricane already clears the 30-knot mark at least once, and a typical Atlantic one comes close to it. Weaker hurricanes are not exempt: of the Atlantic hurricanes since 1966 that peaked at Category 1 or 2, 48% still had at least one 30-knot day.
The figures depend on how often a storm was measured. The largest values lean recent: 9 of the twelve largest Atlantic rises in the file come from 2000 or later.
Reading a single storm
Each storm page has a wind trace that makes these jumps visible as steep climbs, and its ranks section shows where its largest daily rise sits among every storm in its basin. A large rise says nothing about where the storm was at the time; many happen far from land. The storm pages and the storm finder show where.
Sources
NOAA National Hurricane Center, HURDAT2 Atlantic 1851–2025 and Northeast and North Central Pacific 1949–2025. Landsea, C. W. and J. L. Franklin, 2013, Monthly Weather Review 141, 3576–3592. Counts, ranks and totals worked out on this site; see how to read the record.