Hurricane Colin

Hurricane Colin was a minimal hurricane that caused some damage across Florida in early June 2016. The first June hurricane since 2012's Chris, Colin developed from a tropical wave that entered the Caribbean Sea on June 1. Sheared by unfavorable conditions, including a strong upper-level low east of the Lesser Antilles, shower and convective activity gradually increased as the system approached the Yucatán Peninsula. Eventually, the system entered the Gulf of Honduras and a tropical depression formed approximately 40 miles north of Honduras in the late evening hours of June 4. The system intensified to a tropical storm the same night, and crossed Quintana Roo the subsequent day, weakening to a tropical depression during its passage. Terrain interaction with the nation disrupted Colin's core, and the circulation grew to be elongated and disheveled. A series of troughs situated on either side of the cyclone guided it on a northernly path through the Gulf of Mexico, and Colin was expected to make landfall in the Florida panhandle as a marginal tropical storm. However, on June 6, steering currents collapsed and the system began to turn to the northwest. Simultaneously, Colin underwent a watered down version of rapid intensification and attained minimal hurricane status as it bore down on the Big Bend region of Florida. Later that day, Colin made landfall near Steinhatchee with maximum sustained winds of 75 mph, the first hurricane landfall in the state in 11 years.

Sudden land interaction caused Colin to weaken from hurricane status, and it crossed the northern part of the state as a strong tropical storm. Colin then shifted slightly to the northwest in response to a trough stalled over the Bahamas, and it paralled to the South Carolina coastline. Simultaneously, exceedingly warm waters near 27ºC across the Gulf Stream caused the rapidly organizing system