Hurricane Wilma (preliminary report)

Wilma was a classic October hurricane which struck South Florida as a Category 3 hurricane on October 24th, 2005. Wilma developed from a tropical depression near Jamaica, a typical source region for October tropical cyclones, on the afternoon of October 15, 2005. It became the 21st named storm of the season during the morning hours of October 17, 2005, which tied the record for the most named storms in one season originally set back in 1933. Wilma underwent a rapid intensification cycle which began on October 18th and ended in the early morning hours of October 19th, with a central pressure decrease of an incredible 88 mb in only 12 hours! The central pressure reached 882 mb, making Wilma the most intense hurricane ever in the Atlantic Basin, a full 6 mb lower than Hurricane Gilbert in September 1988. Figure 1 (left) illustrates a satellite picture of Wilma shortly after its time of peak intensity. Wilma went on to make landfall on Cozumel Island just off the Yucatan Peninsula as a strong category 4 hurricane on Friday, October 21st, then drifted erratically over the Yucatan Peninsula through Saturday evening October 22nd.

Wilma began to move off the northeast coast of the Yucatan Peninsula on the night of the 22nd, then gradually accelerated northeast over the southern Gulf of Mexico toward South Florida as a strong mid and upper-level trough over the central United States moved south and forced a southwesterly steering flow. The hurricane made landfall as a category 3 storm shortly before 7 AM Monday, October 24th on the southwest Florida coast between Everglades City and Cape Romano. Figure 2 shows an infrared satellite image, while Figures 3 and 4 illustrate radar reflectivity and velocity images/loops of Wilma while crossing the peninsula. Figure 5 illustrates Wilma's track across South Florida.

Wilma exhibited a very large 55 to 65 mile-wide eye while crossing the state, and the eye covered large portions of South Florida, including the eastern two-thirds of Collier County, extreme northwestern Miami-Dade County, the southern and eastern third of Hendry County, most of Broward County, and all of Palm Beach County. The eye also clipped the southeastern shore of Lake Okeechobee. The eye wall, the part of the storm with the strongest winds, affected virtually all of South Florida. Around 10:30 AM, a South Florida Water Management District (SFWMD) meteorological station located at the south end of Lake Okeechobee reported sustained winds of 103 mph. Sustained hurricane force winds (74 mph or greater) were observed over all areas except Hendry and Glades counties, and even those two counties measured hurricane force gusts. The highest recorded gusts were in the 100-120 mph range. An interesting and revealing aspect of Wilma was the wind field in the eye wall. The winds on the back (south/west) side of the eye wall were as strong, if not stronger, than those on the front (north/east) side. This goes against the common, but sometimes erroneous, belief that the strongest winds in a hurricane are always in the right-front quadrant of the storm. This occurred over much of South Florida, except for central and southern Miami-Dade County which barely missed the southwestern portion of the eye wall, and likely contributed to the heavier damage across Broward and Palm Beach counties compared to slightly lesser damage across much of Miami-Dade and Collier counties.

The following are some preliminary maximum sustained winds and peak gusts observed across South Florida:

Fort Lauderdale 70 mph at 811 AM 99 mph at 830 AM Palm Beach International 82 mph at 910 AM 101 mph at 914 AM

WFO Miami (FIU Campus) (See Figure 6; add 4 knots for pin drag) 66 mph 746 AM 104 mph at 747 AM L006***

** This measurement is taken at 145 feet while the traditional representative measurement of a surface wind is taken at 30 feet from the ground.

Figure 7 shows that the lowest pressure recorded at NWS Miami while the storm center passed to the north was around 966 mb.

Wilma moved rapidly northeast across the state, with an average forward speed of 25 mph. Wilma exited the east coast over northeastern Palm Beach County near Palm Beach Gardens around 11 AM Monday October 21st as a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of around 105 mph. It traversed the southern peninsula in about 4 hours.

Rainfall amounts across South Florida generally ranged from 2 to 4 inches across southern sections of the peninsula to 4 to 6 inches across western Collier county and around Lake Okeechobee, with isolated amounts of up to 6 to 8 inches observed (see Figure 8).

The maximum storm surge across the area was mostly south of Chokoloskee in Mainland Monroe county where a storm surge of 13 to 18 feet was forecast. Figure 9 illustrates a simulation of the storm surge for hurricane Wilma. Chokoloskee experienced a storm surge of around 7 feet, which caused extensive flooding. A storm surge of around 7 feet was estimated in Marco Island, with 4 feet in Everglades City. The southeast coast didn't escape the effects of the storm surge, with the tide gauge in Virginia Key reported a maximum surge of around 4 feet. Minor surge flooding was noted in Coconut Grove, Downtown Miami, and Northeast Miami.

Damage was widespread, with large trees and power lines down virtually everywhere, causing over 3 million customers to lose power. Structural damage was heaviest in Broward and Palm Beach counties where roof damage and downed or split power poles were noted in some areas. High-rise buildings suffered considerable damage, mainly in the form of broken windows. This was observed mainly along the southeast metro areas, but also in Naples, which underscores the higher wind speeds with height commonly observed in hurricanes.

One confirmed tornado was observed in rural Collier County around 2:30 AM on the 24th, moving rapidly northwest from the intersection of U.S. 41 and State Road 29 to the town of Copeland three miles to the north. An F1 intensity was assigned to the tornado as it caused snapped power poles, uprooted large trees, and significantly damaged mobile homes. Small swaths of greater damage elsewhere in South Florida have not been attributed to tornadoes, but were instead likely caused by "mini-swirls", small vortices within the eye wall that have been observed in previous strong hurricanes such as Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

For additional information on storm reports see the Local Storm Reports in the Text/Graphical Products issued by NWS WFO Miami link at the bottom of this page.

Additional Information Preliminary Storm Report issued by NWS WFO Miami Text/Graphical Products issued by NWS WFO Miami NOAA Survey Images

All data in this report is preliminary and will be subject to revision and updated over next several days. Last updated on 10/30/2005.

Comprehensive Tropical Weather Information
2005 Atlantic & Caribbean Tropics Events - Highest in Recorded History

10.24.05 - Wilma Slams South Florida as a Category 3 Hurricane
with a 52 mile wide eye, max sustained winds of 120/Gusts-155 mph. Wilma begins to exit South Florida as a Category 2,
MSW 105/Gusts-140 mph, little change in eye width, but it had become quite irregular. However, as Wilma is moving off the
SFP east coast she rapidly increases in intensity, and eye wall shape/formation, with the back side of the hurricane (still on land) causing extensive damage with MSW 125/Gusts-160 mph as Wilma becomes a major Category 3 hurricane again.

FR Pre-Florida Wilma Live Threads: Part I - Part II - Part III
FR Florida Wilma Live Thread: Part IV
(10.26.05 - Combined Wilma Live Threads: over 185,000 views - 6,000 posts) Thanks NautiNurse & everyone that contributed to the threads
E-SFP: Miami-North Dade/Ft. Lauderdale/West Palm Beach - Significant Damage
W-SFP: West End-Florida Keys & Naples - Significant Damage
Current Florida Losses Estimate: $18 Billion Highest Recorded Wilma Ground Wind Speeds:
E-SFP: Key Biscayne - 123 mph. (A record I could have done without)
W-SFP: NHC-Key West and Naples - 125 mph
Hurricane Wilma High Resolution Satellite Images
(Click to Enlarge Thumbnails)
~ Approaching South Florida ~

~ On Land - East Coast, South Florida Peninsula ~

~ Moving Off Atlantic Shore - Offshore ~

10.24.05-7:30pm: Downtown Miami Without Power.
This photo looks "a little different" than the first photo on the page of Downtown Miami, shot from the same area.

Hurricane Wilma: SFP On-Shore Reported Winds (MPH)### East SFP ### - Key Biscayne - 123; Hollywood - 116; South Miami - 115; Miramar - 105; Weston - 104; West Miami-Dade (NHC) - 104; Lake Okeechobee - 102; Boca Raton - 102; Deerfield Beach - 102; Palm Beach - 101; Fort Lauderdale - 95 #
Others E-SFP Unofficial Reports: Pompano Beach - 118; Hallandale Beach - 113; Dania Beach - 108; Fort Lauderdale Courthouse - 105; Davie (Miami Dolphins Training Camp) - 100
### West – SFP ### - Florida Keys: NHC - 125; Cudjoe Key; - 120 Sombrero Key; - 101 Long Key – 74 #
Collier Emergency Operations Center - 125; Naples Airport - 121; Fort Myers Beach - 100; Everglades City - 97; Naples Bellasera Hotel - 86; Cape Coral Elementary - 80; Bonita Springs - 80; Southwest Florida International Airport - 75

Wilma SFP Track & PinPoint Windspeeds Map
Courtesy Jeffers (Click Thumbnail to Enlarge)

10.25 - Florida Power & Light states almost 3.2 million customers remained without power Tuesday morning in what the utility described as the worst outage in its history. 98% of Miami-Dade County's 2.3 million people are without power. Not even Hurricane Andrew achieved that feat in 1992. FPL stated it may take up to four weeks to restore power to everyone because of serious damage to its infrastructure. All public services infrastructure is down on Key Biscayne island. No power, water, sewer, or phones. West side of island (where I live) hit much harder than East side. Miami International Airport closed due to damage (some severe)-power loss. However, one runway is open for emergency relief flights. Airports at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood and Palm Beach are also closed due to damage (some severe)-power loss. Many reports of significant damage to parked private aircrafts in Wilma's path. Wilma also slammed a parked commercial jet head-on into another parked commercial jet doing significant damage to the second jet.

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