Why is Hurricane Florence so intense in this north?

Hurricane Florence, a potentially catastrophic storm in the southeastern United States, has intensified farther north than a typical storm of its size.

Florence is about 370 miles south-southwest of Bermuda and about 845 miles east-southeast of Cape Fear, North Carolina at 2 pm. AND, according to the NHC.

The center said the storm was moving from west to northwest at 17 mph and that it was blowing maximum sustained winds of about 130 mph.

SLIDESHOW: PEOPLE PREPARING FOR HURRICANEFLORENCE

Although it is difficult to attribute the intensification of a storm to one particular factor over another, a scientist explained some of the potential reasons for Fox News.

"There is a literature that supports the idea of ​​stronger storms in latitude over time. These claims are related to the warming of ocean temperatures and the expansion of the Hadley hub in China, "Michael Ventrice, meteorological specialist at The Weather Company, owned by IBM, told Fox News.

"For Florence, in particular, this did not result from higher ocean temperatures. In fact, ocean temperatures were near normal, or slightly below average, "said Ventrice.

In the case of Florence, there was a trough at the upper level which contributed to the rapid intensification of the hurricane.

"It is possible, however, that this interaction between tropical cyclones has occurred through a random change," added Ventrice. "We will need a higher sample of storms over the next 50 to 100 years to fully attribute the assertion of climate change as responsible for the intensification of Florence."

North Carolina has only been hit by a Category 4 storm since records were kept reliable in the 1850s. It was Hurricane Hazel, which had already killed 1,000 people in Haiti. the winds had reached 150 mph when it hit the coast in 1954.

Lucia Suarez Sand and Zoe Szathmary contributed to this report.