The monster storm is currently sowing devastation across the Caribbean.

Despite appearing at the usually subdued beginning of the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season — a period running from June to November — the freak hurricane exploded from a tropical depression into a Category 5 storm between Friday (June 30) and Monday (July 1) as it traveled west. 

With winds topping out at 165 mph (265 km/h), Beryl has already caused widespread damage and killed several people across Carriacou (an island in Grenada), St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The storm, which has since slowed to a Category 4, is expected to next make landfall in Jamaica and then the Cayman Islands.

"In half an hour, Carriacou was flattened," Dickon Mitchell, the prime minister of Grenada, said at a news conference on Monday (July 1). "There is really nothing that could prepare you to see this level of destruction. It is almost Armageddon-like. Almost total damage or destruction of all buildings, whether they be public buildings, homes or private facilities. Complete devastation and destruction of agriculture, complete and total destruction of the natural environment. There is literally no vegetation left anywhere on the island of Carriacou."

Related: We may need a new 'Category 6' hurricane level for winds over 192 mph, study suggests

Scientists have been shocked at the storm's ferocity and how quickly it developed so early in the hurricane season. Brain McNoldy, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Miami, noted on June 30 that the previous record for a Category 4 hurricane in the same region as Beryl was set on Aug. 7, 1899, and the previous earliest date that a storm intensified at the same rate was on Sept. 1.

"It's hard to communicate how unbelievable this is," McNoldy wrote in a blog post. "With La Niña on the way and the ocean temperatures already looking like the second week of September, this is precisely the type of outlier event that people have been talking about for months heading into this season. When you have an unprecedented favorable environment, you're bound to see unprecedented tropical cyclone activity."

Hurricanes grow from a thin layer of ocean water that evaporates due to winds and rises to form storm clouds. The warmer the ocean is, the more energy the system gets, pushing the formation process into overdrive and enabling violent storms to rapidly take shape. This is why the most powerful storms in the Atlantic usually occur between August and September, when sea temperatures peak for the year.

Scientists previously discovered that climate change has made extremely active Atlantic hurricane seasons much more likely than they were in the 1980s. 

Since March 2023, average sea surface temperatures around the world have hit record-shattering highs — providing storms like Beryl with more energy in order to grow.

Another factor in the storm's record-breaking advance is the end of the El Niño weather pattern in April, according to the Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology. El Niño is a climate cycle where waters in the tropical eastern Pacific grow warmer than usual, affecting global weather patterns.

During El Niño, winds in the Atlantic are typically stronger and more stable than usual, limiting hurricane formation. But its end has removed the handbrake on Atlantic storm development.

Beryl could just be the start of a tumultuous hurricane season. As El Niño is set to be replaced by La Niña, it could make for an unusually stormy summer. That's because La Niña weakens trade winds and in turn lessens vertical wind shear, which is what breaks up incipient storms.

These factors led scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to make their highest-ever May forecast for an Atlantic hurricane season, predicting 17 to 25 named storms. According to the forecast, 13 of these storms will be hurricanes, with winds of 74 mph (119 km/h) or higher; and four to seven will be major hurricanes, with winds of 111 mph (179 km/h) or higher.

Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) have made their highest-ever May forecast for an Atlantic hurricane season: 17 to 25 named storms. According to the forecast, 13 of these storms will be hurricanes, with winds of 74 mph (119 km/h) or higher, and four to seven will be major hurricanes, with winds of 111 mph (179 km/h) or higher. 

"This season is looking to be extraordinary in a number of ways," NOAA administrator Rick Spinrad said at a news conference on Thursday (May 23). Spinrad noted that 2024 was now on track to be "the seventh consecutive above-normal season."

An average hurricane season has 14 named storms, seven of which are hurricanes and three of which are major hurricanes, according to NOAA. The most active season on record, 2020, had 30 named storms.

Scientists previously discovered that climate change has made extremely active Atlantic hurricane seasons much more likely than they were in the 1980s. This is because, while hotter oceans don't make hurricanes more frequent, they do make them grow more quickly and become more powerful. 

Related: How are hurricanes named?

Hurricanes grow from a thin layer of warm ocean water that evaporates and rises to form storm clouds. The warmer the ocean is, the more energy the system gets, pushing the storm-formation process into overdrive and enabling violent storms to rapidly take shape.

Since March 2023, average sea surface temperatures around the world have hit record-shattering highs — indicating that a busy storm season is on the cards.

Scientists also predict that El Niño, which recently ended, will transition to La Niña, its cooler counterpart, by the summer or fall. El Niño is a climate cycle in which waters in the tropical eastern Pacific grow warmer than usual, affecting global weather patterns.

During El Niño, winds in the Atlantic are typically stronger and more stable than usual, acting as a brake on hurricane formation. But if the climate cycle follows predictions and El Niño is replaced by La Niña, it could make for a particularly stormy summer. That's because La Niña weakens trade winds and in turns lessens vertical wind shear, which is what breaks up incipient storms. 

So far this decade, five storms have blown at an unprecedented 192 mph (309 km/h) or more, leading scientists to propose a new "Category 6" strength to describe them.

For the U.S., this climatological flip-flop will likely mean a greater risk of major hurricanes in the Atlantic as well as areas of drier-than-usual weather in the southern portions of the country. Globally, La Niña usually leads to declining temperatures, but the lag in when the effects take place means that 2024 will likely still be a top-five year for temperature in climate history, said Tom Di Liberto, a climate scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 

"All signs suggest that 2024 is going to be another warm year," Di Liberto told Live Science. 

El Niño and La Niña describe opposing patterns in the trade winds that encircle the equator, blowing west from South America toward Asia. In a neutral year, when neither pattern is in play, these trade winds push warm water westward, which drives cool ocean water up from the depths to replace it. 

When El Niño is in play, the trade winds weaken, so the eastern Pacific, along the west coast of North and South America, stays warmer. The effect, according to NOAA, is that the jet stream moves southward, drying Canada and the northern U.S. but bringing moisture to the southern portions of the U.S. 

Related: Why don't hurricanes form at the equator?

In a La Niña year, the trade winds strengthen, pushing warm water toward Asia and increasing the upwelling of cold water off the Pacific coast of the Americas. The jet stream moves northward, drying the Southwest and Southeast and bringing wetter weather to the Pacific Northwest and the Great Lakes. 

The El Niño pattern has officially been active since June 2023, but NOAA's Climate Prediction Center now reports that the pattern is weakening, with an 85% chance of a switch to neutral conditions before June. La Niña is then expected to roar back, with a 60% chance of La Niña conditions between June and August, the National Centers for Environmental Prediction reports.

"When it comes to El Niños of this strength, moderate to strong, it"s not uncommon to see these events end rapidly and then shift into La Niña rapidly," Di Liberto said. 

Ocean measurements currently show warm surface temperatures in the Pacific, Di Liberto said, but below-average cold water beneath. Once that cold water hits the surface, the switch will happen quickly, he said. 

The flip from El Niño to La Niña raises the risk of a strong upcoming hurricane season, said Alex DesRosiers, a doctoral candidate in atmospheric science at Colorado State University. During El Niño, rising heat from the eastern Pacific flows into the upper atmosphere, leading to stronger winds at high altitudes. This creates vertical wind shear — a difference in wind speed and direction at the surface versus higher in the atmosphere. And vertical wind shear, DesRosiers told Live Science, "can really act to tear apart hurricanes as they try to form." 

During La Niña, the upper atmosphere winds calm, reducing wind shear. This allows the convection of warm, moist air from the ocean surface to form big storms. 

"As we move into La Niña, the atmosphere becomes more supportive of allowing storms to bubble up and intensify," DesRosiers said. 

As a result of the expected La Niña and current extremely warm Atlantic Ocean surface temperatures, CSU's Tropical Weather & Climate Research team is currently predicting a very active Atlantic hurricane season, with a forecast of 23 named storms (versus the average of 14.4) and five hurricanes of Category 3 or higher (versus the average of 3.2). This year may look similar to 2010 and 2020, both of which were busy storm seasons, although it's not guaranteed that strong storms will impact land, DesRosiers said. 

All of these climatic patterns are taking place against a backdrop of rising ocean and surface temperatures. So, while La Niña usually brings cooler-than-average temperatures to the northern U.S., this region could still experience a scorching summer due to the background effects of climate change, Di Liberto said. 

Similarly, although 2023 was an El Niño year, which should suppress hurricanes, it saw an above-average hurricane season, DesRosiers said. This busy storm season might be due, in part, to 2023 being the warmest year on record. 

"With an Atlantic that is this warm," he said, "we're kind of in uncharted territory." 

The current scale for communicating hurricane risk, the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale, categorizes storms using wind speeds. The mildest category, Category 1, involves wind speeds between 74 and 95 mph (119 to 153 km/h), while the strongest, Category 5, involves wind speeds of 158 mph (254 km/h) or higher.

Warm ocean temperatures strengthen hurricanes because the storms pull moisture more easily from warmer oceans. This means both more rainfall and stronger winds when storms make landfall. As ocean temperatures increase and feed stronger hurricanes, it may be necessary to add a Category 6 to describe storms with winds of 192 mph (309 km/h) or higher, researchers said Feb. 5 in the journal PNAS.

"Our motivation is to reconsider how the open-endedness of the Saffir-Simpson Scale can lead to underestimation of risk, and, in particular, how this underestimation becomes increasingly problematic in a warming world," study co-author Michael Werner, a climate scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said in a statement.

The scientists first looked at wind speeds in hurricanes between 1980 and 2021, tracking trends over time. They found that five storms had winds of over 192 mph, and that all five of those storms occurred in the nine years before 2021.

The researchers then conducted simulations to see how future warming might affect hurricanes and their Pacific Ocean iterations, typhoons. They found that the risk of a typhoon with winds over 192 mph increases by 50% near the Philippines with 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit (2 degrees Celsius) of warming above pre-industrial temperatures. This is the temperature threshold that signatories to the 2015 Paris Agreement pledged not to cross; it's uncertain when the mercury will rise that high.

In a world warmed by 3.6 F, the risk of a storm with more than 192 mph winds would also double in the Gulf of Mexico, the researchers found. The Philippines, Gulf of Mexico and Southeast Asia were most at risk of getting these "Category 6" storms.

The Saffir-Simpson Winds Scale is also limited by its focus on wind speeds, whereas storm surge and flooding can be a major danger to life and property during tropical storms, hurricanes and typhoons, James Kossin, a climate scientist at the University of Wisconsin, said in the statement. A Category 6 would not address that issue but might bring awareness to the increased risk from storms overall under a warming climate, he added.

"Our results are not meant to propose changes to this scale, but rather to raise awareness that the wind-hazard risk from storms presently designated as Category 5 has increased and will continue to increase under climate change," he said.

Forecasters are monitoring the tropical storm's path and "are confident" that it will next careen toward the Leeward Islands, a cluster of islands that includes the U.S. Virgin Islands and is located where the Atlantic meets the Caribbean Sea, according to The Washington Post.

The NHC projects that Lee could reach "hurricane strength very soon, and to a major hurricane within 48 hours," the NHC wrote in its Wednesday (Sept. 6) forecast. "Continued strengthen[ing] seems likely after that time, but hard-to-predict eyewall replacement cycles could cause some fluctuations in intensity later in the weekend and early next week."

Related: Which hurricane caused the most damage?

Currently, Lee is situated roughly 1,200 miles (1,930 kilometers) east of the northern Leeward Islands, with winds at approximately 70 mph (113 km/h), and is sweeping west-northwest at 14 mph (22 km/h), according to the forecast.

Lee became a tropical storm on Tuesday (Sept. 5) after forming over the central tropical Atlantic, according to the NHC. If it reaches at least 74 mph (119 km/h), it will be considered a Category 1 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.

As Lee continues its momentum to the west-northwest, favorable conditions will likely help it become a full-fledged hurricane, including "plenty of moisture, low wind shear and abnormally warm water [that] stretch nearly the entire length of [its] projected path," CNN reported.

Lee is not expected to impact the United States at this time, according to CBS News.

It would be the fourth tropical storm to become a hurricane this season, following in the paths of Don, Franklin and Idalia, according to CNN.

Idalia made landfall in Florida's Big Bend region around 7:45 a.m. local time on Wednesday (Aug. 30), according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). The storm first hit the west of Cuba on Monday and Tuesday (Aug. 28 and 29), where it destroyed homes and flooded villages on the island. It then intensified over the Gulf of Mexico and traveled north with sustained winds of 130 mph (210 km/h) and gusts up to 160 mph (260 km/h), before weakening to a Category 3 storm as it reached the Florida coast. At least two people have died in crashes, the Washington Post reported.

Hurricane Idalia dropped to a Category 2 storm an hour after making landfall near Keaton Beach, about 75 miles (120 kilometers) southeast of Tallahassee. 

Off-the-charts sea temperatures likely fueled Hurricane Idalia — the most powerful storm to ever strike the Big Bend region, which extends from the top of the peninsula to the west of Florida.

The storm's "rapid intensification is definitely feeding off that warmth that we know is there," Kristen Corbosiero, an associate professor of atmospheric and environmental sciences at the University of Albany, told AP News.

Related: Which hurricane caused the most damage? 

Ocean temperatures this year have broken every record since satellite measurements began, especially in the Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricanes draw energy from warm waters, and experts warned that Florida's bathtub conditions would likely strengthen storms and hurricanes coming the state's way.

These sizzling sea temperatures are being driven by a combination of human-caused climate change and an El Niño event, which is forecasted to substantially exceed the last strong event in early 2016.

Idalia rode northward on pools of warm, deep water that carried the storm into the Gulf of Mexico, Corbosiero said. Deep water is usually colder than the top layers, and storms can stall themselves by churning these currents up to the surface. But these deep waters may not be as cold as they have been in other years, and Florida's west coast is not deep enough for them to cool down significantly, experts told AP News.

Another factor that may have powered flooding from Idalia is a rare blue supermoon rising Wednesday, which may raise tides above normal and boost seawater surging over the coastline. Supermoons intensify the gravitational pull on Earth, which may contribute to worse tidal flooding brought by the hurricane across Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

"I would say the timing is pretty bad for this one," Brian Haines, a meteorologist in charge of the National Weather Service office in Charleston, South Carolina, told AP News.

Idalia's destructive advance is likely to be felt through Thursday (Aug. 31), with 4 to 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) of rain predicted in some isolated areas, according to the NHC.

This year's El Niño may drive ocean temperatures to "substantially exceed" those recorded during the last strong event in early 2016, scientists have warned.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) latest El Niño update also says there is a more than 95% chance the event will last through to February 2024, with far-reaching climate impacts.

"El Niño is anticipated to continue through the Northern Hemisphere winter," NOAA staff wrote in the update. "Our global climate models are predicting that the warmer-than-average Pacific ocean conditions will not only last through the winter, but continue to increase."

Scientists officially announced the onset of El Niño in early June. El Niño is an ocean-warming event that typically occurs every two to seven years in the central and eastern Pacific, driving air temperatures up around the globe.

Its strongest climate impacts are usually felt during the Northern Hemisphere's winter and early spring, bringing more rain and storms across the southern U.S., southeastern South America, the Horn of Africa and eastern Asia. In other parts of the world, such as southeastern Africa and Indonesia, El Niño leads to drier conditions and may increase the risk of drought.

Related: Florida waters now 'bona fide bathtub conditions' as heat dome engulfs state

To track El Niño's progress, scientists measured sea surface temperatures in the east-central tropical Pacific Ocean. Abnormally high temperatures seem to confirm early predictions that this year's event could be a big one. Atmospheric conditions are also consistent with a long-lasting El Niño, according to NOAA.

"El Niño is a coupled phenomenon, meaning the changes we see in the ocean surface temperatures must be matched by changes in the atmospheric patterns above the tropical Pacific," the update said. More rain and clouds over the central Pacific, as well as weak pressure in the east and reduced trade wind activity in the west, suggest "the system is engaged and that these conditions will last through the winter," staff added.

Sea surface temperatures in the east-central tropical Pacific exceeded the long-term average for 1991 to 2020 by 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) throughout the month of July. Temperatures from May to July — a three-month average called the Oceanic Niño Index — were also 1.4 F (0.8 C) higher than usual and marked the second warmer-than-average Oceanic Niño Index in a row.

"We need to see five consecutive three-month averages above this threshold before these periods will be considered a historical 'El Niño episode,'" the update said. "Two is a good start."

There is "a good chance" the Oceanic Niño Index will match or exceed the threshold for a "strong" El Niño, the update added.

And forecasters are now confident the event will remain strong through to next year, although this doesn't necessarily equate to strong impacts locally, they noted

El Niño affects global weather patterns, as well as the Atlantic and Pacific hurricane seasons. The event usually dampens hurricanes over the Atlantic Ocean, but this year's sizzling water temperatures could mitigate this dampening effect , according to NOAA's Climate Prediction Center.

While a hurricane update in May predicted a 30% chance of higher activity over the Atlantic, the latest forecast said there is a 60% chance of an "above normal season," with up to 21 named storms and five major hurricanes.

Coastal waters around Florida have reached alarming temperatures of 95 degrees Fahrenheit (35 degrees Celsius) with no sign of cooling off anytime soon, experts say.

The Sunshine State is in the midst of its hottest year in modern history, with temperatures over land averaging in the mid 90s F (35 C) — 3 to 5 F (1.7 to 2.8 C) above normal for this time of year. Ocean waters have absorbed much of this heat, causing sea temperatures to soar to record highs, which could spell trouble for marine ecosystems and strengthen storms and hurricanes.

"It's an astounding, prolonged heat wave even for a place that's no stranger to sultry weather," Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate at the University of Miami's School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, told the Washington Post. "It's not something we like to see near land simply because it would allow a storm to maintain a high intensity right up to landfall or rapidly intensify as it approaches landfall." 

Related: Heat waves are hitting the deep ocean floor, with potentially catastrophic results 

The marine heat wave has hit at a time when the water is already warm, "bringing it up to bona fide bathtub conditions that we rarely see," he added.

Waters off Florida typically reach temperatures in the high 80s F (31 C) in July, said Jeff Berardelli, chief meteorologist and climate specialist at the television station WFLA-TV in Tampa. But temperatures this year are "boiling," he wrote on Twitter on Monday (July 10). 

The current bath-like conditions are consistent with a "severe" marine heat wave, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The agency defines marine heat waves as "prolonged periods of anomalously high sea surface temperature" that can impact "a broad range of marine life."

This includes coral bleaching, as reefs are "extremely sensitive to slight changes (just a few degrees) in water [temperature]," Berardelli wrote. NOAA's Coral Reef Watch has designted an "Alert Level 1" area off the coast of Florida — the second-highest warning on the scale — with "significant bleaching likely."

The spike in ocean heat in Florida is partly attributable to unusually warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico and to record-breaking sea surface temperatures worldwide. "Very, very light" and "inconsistent" winds over the state have also played a role, Berardelli noted.

"We have a very off weather pattern this summer, and sea surface [temperatures] respond to that," he wrote. While "a nice breeze" typically sweeps over Florida from the southeast this time of year, the state has seen near-windless conditions — and when there is wind, it has brought warmer air from the Gulf of Mexico in the west, Berardelli added.

These conditions mean there has been little to no mixing of the sun-exposed top layer of water with colder waters below.

Another factor contributing to the marine heat wave could be low rainfall over the Floridian peninsula, which usually acts to cool the ocean surface, Berardelli wrote.

The unprecedented water temperatures are intensifying the heat wave on land, which is predicted to rage on for at least another week. Increased ocean warmth raises humidity and keeps air temperatures high during the night. As a result, the state has recorded heat indexes — which factor in humidity to measure how hot the air feels — topping 110 F (43 C).

In June, NOAA reported that 40% of the world's oceans were facing marine heat waves, and this record-breaking percentage is predicted to increase to 50% by September. The effects are tied to climate change compounded by an ongoing El Niño event, with oceans absorbing 90% of the extra heat in the climate system. 

Historical maps of the locations of tropical cyclones (also known as typhoons and hurricanes, depending on the location) would reveal that "it is extremely rare for them to form within a few degrees of the equator," Gary Barnes, a meteorologist who's now retired from the University of Hawaii, told Live Science. (One degree of latitude covers about 69 miles, or 111 kilometers.)

But why aren't there hurricanes at the equator?

The reason is linked to why tropical cyclones rotate, which is due to Earth's spin. At the equator, even when the air is calm, the planet and the atmosphere above it are actually moving at over 1,000 mph (1,600 km/h), Barnes said. This movement follows Earth's direction of spin from west to east.

Related: How many satellites orbit Earth? 

Earth's circumference is largest at the equator. This means anything standing on the equator is moving faster eastward than anything lying away from the equator — anything on the equator is traveling a greater distance than anything north or south on Earth's surface in the same amount of time.

If air moves north from the equator, it will also still flow quickly eastward compared with its new surroundings. This means air traveling north from the equator will appear to veer right. In contrast, air flowing south from the equator will appear to stray left.

This phenomenon, known as the Coriolis effect, helps control the direction in which tropical cyclones spin. In the Northern Hemisphere, rightward-turning air will create a counterclockwise spinning motion, and the opposite will occur in the Southern Hemisphere.

"Hurricanes collect rotation from the environment around them," Paul Roundy, an atmospheric scientist at the University of Albany in New York, told Live Science. 

This apparent turning of the wind "is very weak near the equator but becomes much stronger as latitude increases," Barnes said. This is why tropical cyclones only rarely form near the equator — higher latitudes have faster-spinning winds to help drive tropical cyclone growth.

Still, "there are odd exceptions," Barnes noted. For instance, in 2001 the South China Sea, Tropical Cyclone Vamei "intensified within 2 degrees of the equator, but the nascent circulation actually formed earlier, farther away from the equator," he said. Scientists think winds interacting with island terrain in the Indonesian archipelago may have generated the rotation that gave rise to Vamei, he said.

If a tropical cyclone were to cross the equator, "it would begin ingesting air rotating in the opposite direction," Roundy said. Barnes noted that this would likely drive the storm to weaken and collapse.

However, "it's conceivable that a storm could cross the equator some small distance, since the opposing rotation remains fairly small close to the equator," Roundy said. "It is probably not possible for a tropical cyclone to cross several degrees of latitude into the opposite hemisphere."

Climate change "does not significantly affect the rotation of the Earth, so it won't directly impact the chances of a hurricane crossing the equator," Roundy noted. "However, if rare storms at low latitude were able to achieve higher intensities, if they happened to move toward the equatorial region, they might better maintain there. Climate change might increase the strength of the strongest storms."

A super-powered cyclone named "Freddy" has likely broken a number of mindblowing records since it formed in early February. The monstrous storm has crossed the Indian Ocean and made landfall three separate times, and may be the most energetic and long-lasting storm ever recorded.

Freddy was first named on Feb. 6 after forming off the north Australian coast. Since then, it has traveled more than 5,000 miles (8,000 kilometers) across the southern Indian Ocean to southeast Africa, where it finally appears to be dying down, according to the World Meteorological Association (WMA).

After damaging infrastructure on the islands of Mauritius and Réunion, which both avoided a direct hit, Freddy first made landfall on Feb. 21 as it plowed across the island nation of Madagascar. From there, the storm made landfall at Mozambique on Feb. 23 before briefly heading back out to sea, where it narrowly missed Madagascar again before turning around once more to hit Mozambique again on March 11, along with Malawi and Zimbabwe.

At least 148 people have been killed by Freddy and another 19 are missing, with death tolls likely to rise, according to the United Nations' Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). 

Related: Bermuda's hurricanes are twice as strong as they were six decades ago

The cyclone dumped a mind-boggling amount of rain on land, leading to mudslides and flooding that have displaced tens of thousands and worsened a cholera outbreak in Malawi. Southern Mozambique received more than double its annual rainfall duringFreddy's landfalls, and Malawi received around 1.6 feet (0.5 meter) of rain in just 72 hours, according to WMA. 

The cyclone has now moved back out to sea, where it is expected to finally dissipate.

Record-breaker

Though this still needs to be confirmed with storm data, Freddy is likely the longest-lived tropical cyclone on record, having lasted for at least 35 days. The previous record was set by Typhoon John, which whirled across the Pacific for 31 days in 1994. (Cyclones, which form in the southern hemisphere; hurricanes, which form in the Atlantic Ocean; and typhoons, which form in the Pacific Ocean, are collectively known as "tropical cyclones.")

Freddy has also released an astonishing amount of energy during its long life. Scientists measure this using the accumulated cyclone energy (ACE) index, which tracks wind speed data over time. By Feb. 23, Freddy already had an ACE index of 66, making it the most powerful cyclone ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 

By March 12, Freddy had reached an ACE index of 86, The Washington Post reported. If confirmed, that would make it the most energetic tropical cyclone ever recorded on Earth. The current record holder was Hurricane Ioke in 2006, which had an ACE index of 85.2. 

Why has Freddy lasted so long? 

Freddy has lasted so long because it has undergone several periods of restrengthening, where surrounding weather fronts strengthen wind speeds after they initially die down. Freddy has undergone at least four restrengthening events, which is the most ever seen in a tropical cyclone, according to NOAA. Further research will be needed to determine why this happened. 

NOAA experts also think that La Niña, an atmospheric phenomenon that cools large regions of Earth's oceans, could have played a role. The last two storms to take a similar path to Freddy across the Indian Ocean occurred in 2000, when there was a rare triple-dip La Niña that lasted three years. The current La Niña is also in its third year.

Experts suspect that human-caused climate change has played a role in strengthening the storm, although it is too early to say exactly how, according to WMA.