Hurricane Matthew: Track and Classification

The wind is the horizontal motion of air past a given point and is a direct result of pressure differences across a geographic location. When the pressure changes rapidly over a small distance, the force that creates the wind, known as the pressure gradient force, is large. The larger the difference in pressure between the center and outside of a storm, the stronger the winds.

Source: Matthew 2016 Track | WikiMedia

The lowest pressure recorded in Hurricane Matthew was 941 mb, with wind speeds of 160 mph. This classified Hurricane Matthew as a Category 5 Hurricane on September 30, 2016, when the storm was located 80 miles north of Columbia, South America. Hurricane Matthew maintained Category 4 to 5 intensity for the longest duration on record in the eastern Caribbean.