Hurricane Wilma is now the most intense hurricane in the Atlantic ever recorded. Lower pressure than Hurricane Gilbert and the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane. Amazing. Central pressure an astounding 884 mb's. 000 URNT12 KNHC 190835 VORTEX DATA MESSAGE A. 19/08:00:30Z B. 17 deg 03 min N 082 deg 20 min W C. 700 mb 2082 m D. NA kt E. NA deg nm F. 320 deg 166 kt G. 221 deg 003 nm H. 884 mb I. 10 C/ 3073 m J. 24 C/ 3043 m K. 10 C/ NA L. CLOSED M. C4 N. 12345/ 7 O. 0.02 / 1 nm P. AF308 0724A WILMA OB 16 MAX FL WIND 168 KT SE QUAD 06:10:20 Z
I like how Dr. Jeff Masters puts it: There has never been a hurricane like Wilma before. With an unbelievable round of intensification that saw the pressure drop 85 mb in just 12 hours, Wilma smashed the all-time record for lowest pressure in an Atlantic hurricane this morning. The 4 am hurricane hunter report put the pressure at 884 mb from a dropsonde, and the meteorologist reported an even lower 881 mb pressure extrapolated from 10,000 feet flight altitude. This easily bests the previous record of 888 mb set in Hurricane Gilbert of 1988. The eye of Wilma during this round of intense deepening oscillated between 2 and 4 nautical miles, and the area of hurricane force winds only covered an area up to 15 miles from the center. This is an incredibly compact, amazingly intense hurricane, the likes of which has never been seen. The Hurricane Season of 2005 keeps topping itself with new firsts, and now boasts three of the five most intense hurricanes of all time--Katrina, Rita, and Wilma. I'll be back with a much more detailed blog later this morning, when I've had time to digest these events. I'll talk about what it was like to be the flight meteorologist on the Hurricane Gilbert flight that set the previous record for most intense Atlantic hurricane. We're living history this year, everybody, this is a once-in-a-lifetime hurricane season. Jeff Masters http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/show.html
Jeff Masters ~= Jeff Balke??? We have our very own Jeff meteorologist, thank you very much. Waiting on 10 a.m. to post the latest NHC 5-day huge graphic to see if they change the forecast.
Jeff Masters can bite me. these guys have gotten tons better at telling us where hurricanes are going...but they can't even begin to tell you about intensification. just like with Rita..."oh, yeah..this thing won't get past Cat 3." cat 3, my ass.
obviously something has been incorrect with our data models when we are predicting the intensification of these things. this is crazy.
yeah...ya think?? rita won't get to Cat 4, right? how about 24 hours later she's spinning Cat 5? not enough energy in the gulf after katrina?? oh, yeah...well there's your cat 5. oh, and here's the most intense storm in atlantic history. ya know...the one that 12 hours ago they were saying might get to be a weak Cat 3 at some point.
No kidding. With such a small eye and 175 winds only extending 20 miles out, this is like one ginormous tornado.
