Strongest Atlantic Hurricane: Wilma Brought Havoc to Mexico, Florida

October 25, 2013

Strongest Atlantic Hurricane: Wilma Brought Havoc to Mexico, Florida
Hurricane Wilma was a most unusual tropical system in a most unusual Atlantic hurricane season in 2005.

The storm, in many ways, was overshadowed by Hurricane Katrina, which pulverized New Orleans and other parts of the Gulf Coast.

The storm had the all-time lowest central pressure of any Atlantic hurricane on record at 882 millibars (26.05 inches), and dumped more than 5 feet of rain (1576.1 mm) on parts of the Yucatan Peninsula.

Wilma was one of 28 storms that developed during the 2005 season, the busiest on record. It was the first time forecasters ran out of names from the regular naming chart of tropical systems and had to turn to the Greek alphabet to name storms.

The storms went from Tropical Storm Arlene in June to Tropical Storm Zeta in late December 2005.

"It was a very unusual season with a combination of the number of storms and several Category 5 storms with Wilma, Katrina and Rita," AccuWeather.com Hurricane Expert Dan Kottlowski said.

"We haven't had a Category 5 storm since Ike in 2006. It shows you how rare these features are."
Wilma formed as a tropical depression on Oct. 14, 2005, near Grand Cayman, but just four days later, the storm took a dramatic turn for the worst.

Between Oct. 18 and 19, 2005, Wilma grew from a 69 mph (60-knot) tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Scale at 173 mph (150 knots).

After the blast through southern Florida, Wilma provided moisture that added strength to a late October nor'easter that dumped as much as 20 inches of snow from New England south to West Virginia and produced 74 mph winds and 38-foot waves.

Wilma confirmed to forecasters that when a storm tracks over very warm water, there will be rapid intensification -- a phenomenon still not well understood, Kottlowski said.

It helped set in motion several research projects to better forecast rapid intensification, including a software package still used to determine the chance of a storm to rapidly intensify.

https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/hurricane-wilma-brought-death/18997467