It's hard to understand the early reports about Hurricane Harvey. Why did the news say it had increased in strength to a Cat 4 hurricane? Then almost immediately afterwards it was downgraded to Cat 1?
Hurricanes absorb energy from warm sea water, which strengthens them. As the body of the storm moves over land it is cut off from this source of energy, and hence weakens. According to reports I read Harvey was Cat 4 at landfall, however as it moved inland it rapidly lost energy. I believe it has currently been downgraded to a tropical storm rather than a hurricane.
Some models were predicting that Harvey might move back offshore, where it could again draw energy from the warm water, and strengthen again. Apparently that hasn't happened as of yet.
EDIT: A good source of up to date information is from
the NOAA National Hurricane Center.
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