On Thursday Hurricane Teddy rapidly strengthened to a Powerful Category 4 hurricane as it continued to travel northwest toward Bermuda.

Wednesday night it appeared Teddy was struggling as a strong category 2 Hurricane. However on Thursday Teddy was able to rapidly strengthen to an extremely powerful Category 4 Hurricane. So what exactly was causing the structural issues with the hurricane on Wednesday?

It appears an eyewall replacement cycle had begun during the day on Wednesday. The eyewall collapsed causing a short term loss in intensity. As soon as the eyewall replacement cycle concluded however Teddy was ready to take advantage of the surrounding environment and rapidly strengthen.

So what is next for Hurricane Teddy? Well it has the next 48 hours to continue to strengthen over warm sea surface temperatures and low vertical wind shear . After 48 hours the cyclone will be moving over cooler water and by 96 hours vertical wind shear is expected to increase ahead of a frontal trough and associated frontal boundary. These conditions are expected to cause Hurricane Teddy to weaken.