On This Day in 2005: Wilma Becomes The Most Intense Atlantic Basin Hurricane | WeatherBug
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On This Day in 2005: Wilma Becomes The Most Intense Atlantic Basin Hurricane

October 19, 2020
By WeatherBug's Chris Sayles
The 2005 Atlantic Hurricane Season did a pretty good job of rearranging the record books with more than two dozen hurricanes. One storm in that season was more notable than the others, becoming the strongest ever in the Atlantic.

The record-breaking storm, Hurricane Wilma, started as a tropical wave in the Caribbean Sea on October 13, 2005. This system would become better organized thanks to the warm, tropical waters and low wind shear. By the 17th, the National Hurricane Center would find that Tropical Storm Wilma had formed. Even from the beginning, Wilma was a large storm, but this would only be a precursor for the monster it would become. 

It would not take Wilma long to intensify into a hurricane. In fact, less than 24 hours after becoming a tropical storm, the storm would undergo rapid intensification leading to the central pressure plummeting to a whopping 882 mb, or 26.05 inches of mercury on October 19. This record-breaking pressure would place Wilma atop the record books as the most intense hurricane in the Atlantic Basin. The winds increased rapidly as well, with Wilma reaching an estimated 185 mph, making it comfortably a top-of-the-scale Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. 

Wilma would then track northwestward toward the Yucatan Peninsula, bombarding Cozumel, Mexico, on October 21, after weakening to "only" a Category 4 hurricane on October 21, 2005. After crossing the Yucatan, Wilma would move into the Gulf of Mexico, and curve eastward toward its ultimate target: Florida. By October 24, Wilma would make its final landfalls over southwestern Florida as a Category 3 hurricane with winds estimated at 120 mph. 

The impacts of Wilma would scar the U.S. and Caribbean alike. Total damage from the storm reached over $20 billion with 52 overall deaths from the storm. In fact, catastrophic winds and storm surge would lead to the most devastating part of the storm in Florida, with the Florida Keys as much as 10 feet of storm surge. Meanwhile, areas such as Cape Canaveral, Fla., would receive nearly 15 inches of rainfall due to the storm with most of southern Florida receiving 10 to 15 inches. More than 3 million people lost power in Broward, Miami-Dade, and Palm Beach counties.

The name “Wilma” would be retired from the Atlantic hurricane naming list after the season, and would be the last major hurricane to strike Florida until the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season. 

Sources: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), NASA

Story Image: Hurricane Wilma regional imagery, October 24, 2005 at 1245Z. (NOAA/Wikimedia Commons)