– Wilma is now a CATEGORY 5 hurricane!

Yet another Hurricane – CATEGORY 5 is about to strike the US coast.. this time in Florida! If this is not enough of a reminder that things in the weather phenomena are “a-changing” – I dont know what is?? This season US has already had TWO record setting Hurrricanes.. and now this is the third one… note the “lowest pressure ever recorded in the Atlantic basin”!!

Gathering strength at a fierce pace, Hurricane Wilma grew into a Category 5 monster storm early Wednesday with 175 mph winds. Forecasters warned the storm was “extremely dangerous” and said a key reading of its pressure was the lowest ever recorded in the Atlantic basin.

Wilma was dumping rain on Central America and Mexico, and forecasters warned of a “significant threat” to Florida by the weekend.

“All interests in the Florida Keys and the Florida peninsula should closely monitor the progress of extremely dangerous Hurricane Wilma,” the
National Hurricane Center in Miami said in its latest advisory.

The storm gathered force rapidly over the last day. It was only Tuesday morning that Wilma grew from a tropical storm into a weak hurricane.

At 5 a.m. EDT, U.S. Air Force reconnaissance planes measured Wilma’s top sustained winds at 175 mph, making it a Category 5 hurricane, the Hurricane Center said. At that time, the storm was centered about 170 miles south-southwest of Grand Cayman Island and about 365 miles southeast of Cozumel, Mexico. It was moving west-northwest at nearly 8 mph and was expected to turn northwest, the Hurricane Center said.

“It does look like it poses a significant threat to Florida by the weekend. Of course, these are four- and five-day forecasts, so things can change,” said Dan Brown, a meteorologist at the U.S. National Hurricane Center.

The Air Force plane recorded a preliminary pressure reading Wednesday morning of 884 millibars, the lowest minimum pressure ever recorded in a hurricane in the Atlantic basin. Lower pressure translates into higher wind speed.

Jamaica, Cuba, Nicaragua and Honduras were getting heavy rain from the storm, though it wasn’t likely to make landfall in any of those countries. Forecasts showed it would likely turn toward the narrow Yucatan Channel between Cuba and Mexico’s Cancun region — then move into the storm-weary Gulf.

With heavy rain, high winds, and rough seas already pounding coastal areas, flood-prone Honduras warned that Wilma posed “an imminent threat to life and property” and closed two seaports on its Caribbean coast. Neighboring Nicaragua also declared an alert. Authorities in the Cayman Islands had earlier called an alert.

… read more