The History of Hurricane Wilma

On Saturday, October 14th in the year 2005, a storm in the western Caribbean Sea became organized enough to draw the attention of the National Weather Service. At the time, the poorly defined center of the storm was located 85 miles southwest of Montego Bay, Jamaica. Weak steering currents in the area caused the storm to wander the Caribbean Sea over the next few days in a general westerly direction as it slowly began to strengthen. On Saturday, October 15th at 5:00 pm the storm was designated as Tropical Depression Number 24. TD24 continued meandering without a clearly defined path over the next few days. On Monday, October 17th at 5:00 am the wind speed had increased to 40 mph and Tropical Depression Number 24 officially became Tropical Storm Wilma, the twenty-first named storm of the 2005 season. By Tuesday, October 18th at 11:00 am, Wind speeds had increased to 74 mph and Wilma became the thirteenth hurricane of 2005. The pressure dropped and dramatic strengthening occurred over the next 24 hours. Just 18 hours after reaching hurricane strength, Wilma became a Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. Intensification this rapid is unprecedented in the Atlantic Basin. During this time of strengthening, aircraft measured the diameter of the eye at 2 nautical miles, the smallest eye ever known to exist. Thursday, October 20th, western currents in the atmosphere began to affect Wilma; she adopted a northwestern path and began moving directly towards the Yucatan Peninsula. Some weakening occurred and Wilma was a Category 4 with maximum sustained wind speeds of 140 mph as the eye moved onto Cozumel around 1:00 pm on Friday, October 21st. An area of high pressure had formed north of the Yucatan Peninsula and caused Wilma to stall over the Cancun area, lingering for approximately the next 30 hours before the eye moved into the Gulf of Mexico as a Category 2 storm with wind speeds near 100 mph. She was promptly picked up by the western currents and swept in a northeastern direction towards Florida. Gaining speed and strength, Wilma was traveling at 23 mph as a category 3 storm with winds near 110 mph as the eye moved into southwest Florida. Approximately 4.5 hours later, the eye moved into the Atlantic Ocean.

Figures and data could not possibly convey the impact of this hurricane. It is not possible to express the fear and uncertainty of the poor souls in the Yucatan Peninsula as Wilma stalled and seemingly refused to leave. "Will the roof hold?" "Do we have food enough to last through this?" "Does my family know where I am?" "When is this going to end!" The monetary value of the damage caused by Wilma has been estimated at 16 to 20 billion dollars; Mexico’s insurance industry claims that this was the most expensive disaster in history. Tragically, there are 62 deaths reportedly attributed to Wilma. Mudslides in Haiti killed at least 12 people. One death was reported in Jamaica on October 16th. In Cuba, a bus carrying evacuees crashed; 4 people were killed, including 3 foreign tourists. Wilma was responsible for at least 8 deaths in Mexico, and at least 35 deaths in Florida can be directly traced to her.