Hurricane Wilma - Close-Up Visible Satellite Loop

[FloridaSeverWeather]

its odd, like the eye rotates around a center rotation, almost like a satellite tornado in a mesocyclone 

[SCECountZero]

thats scary i dont want to be an astronaut

[xxxRCT3FREAKxxx]

did wilma retire its name

[FalcoPWNNch]

@xxxRCT3FREAKxxx Yes, did alot of damage to the yucatan of mexico and more damage to south florida.

[cookie1749]

@xxxRCT3FREAKxxx yeah it was replaced by Whitney. By the way wont happen :D

[mrfloppyjoe]

wanker

[RandomNameTag]

This is a meterologists worst nightmare. Imagine a tropical storm near Miami undergoing explosive intensification just prior to landfall. Within 12 hours, it becomes a Category 5 and slams the coast. There's no time to prepare, since people in heavily populated areas need over 24 hours to evacuate.

[alexthekit]

DEAR GENTLE JESUS ON A CRACKER! That's freaking huge!

I heard that hurricane Wilma was the most intense hurricane ever recorded.

[jorgeistmo93]

bad

[twiz11]

Dat hurricane is huge!

[galetheone]

Every time I see this loop, I can't believe the size (diameter) of this Nature Phenomenon......... It is absolutely incredible!

[real0988]

Awesome visible satellite image!!.. notable is the turning of the eye so small; as if an eye rotate around even bigger. I think it is the fastest ever recorded spin :o

[liquidstl]

LOL, - this radar loop is awesome.... it reminds me of a hypothetical discussion a friend and I had about a particle traveling around a hurricane, while the hurricnae was moving in a cycloid curve ( this was just after we learend the unique properties of the cycloid in Calculus 2 last semester) and what the particals overall vector path would be....... We could complicate it even more if it was also traviling around an embedded tornado , miniswirle, or other mesovroticy imbedded in t storm

[ccdcat68]

Wilmas eye is so small when is at its peak

[maccKaron]

I can destroy these monsters...

and want to make my discovering in practice...

[CommanderLightning]

...I'm gonna kick your ass, maccKaron...

...and I want others to do so to you in practice...

[maccKaron]

CommanderLightning ... Break off a pig

[CommanderLightning]

Is that all you can say to me? What makes you think you can destroy storms when in reality, YOU NEVER HAD CONTROL IN THE FIRST PLACE?!!

[PityOak]

Super Typhoon TIP was the lowest pressure ever recorded in the history with the 306 damaging winds near the center.

Luckily it did'nt made landfall VoV

[lancekok22]

wilma was the strongest not biggest I believe Ike could be the largest in size

[DillatheDude]

The largest cyclone(hurricane, typhoon) in the world ever was Typhoon Tip in the 70s. It was half the size of the US.

[Godrocksandloves]

It was the strongest (Pressure wise) in the atlantic, were as Ike was the largest in the atlantic

[Jangle2007]

I would dearly love to see hurricance hunter vids or photos from Wilma's eye at this peak intensity in an eye only 2 miles wide! It must have been the most incredible stadium effect ever witnessed.

[vmax135]

From what I've heard the recon mission that encountered Wilma at peak intensity had an extremely rough flight...and were less than a thousand feet above the surface with the plane in a nose down attitude before recovering. Almost on par with the NOAA P3 that was severely damaged during the first penetration of Hugo in 1989, or the mission that had to be aborted during Hurricane Felix last year. It definitely would be amazing to see video of that.

[Jangle2007]

Michael - Thanks for reply. How does one locate the crew from that mission? And despite the rough ride, are you aware whether anyway got pics or vids?

And now a new question: when Airforce SOP's call for eyewall entry at 10,000 feet pressure altitude, what was this mission doing in severe turbulence at down under 1000 feet MSL?

[Jangle2007]

(cont.) If this recon flight was riding a pressure altitude into the eye, due to the incredible pressure gradient in the eyewall, they must have been dropping like a stone as they traversed into the pressure well at the center of the storm.  That had to be the ride of a lifetime.

[PrinceAndres98]

@vmax135

From what you've told me, I aggree!!

[GermanOperaSinger]

@Jangle2007 @vmax135 I've never seen any video of the recon flight either, but the ISS images taken around 1324Z on the 19th when Wilma was at peak intensity are absolutely breathtaking.

[Copper20]

Hurricane Gilbert was bigger, but Wilma had heavier rain.

[welshkid246]

actually wilma is the biggest hurricane ever recorded according to the news at the time this was taking place...

[welshkid246]

Most intense Atlantic hurricanes Intensity is measured solely by central pressure Rank Hurricane Season Min. pressure 1 Wilma 2005 882 mbar (hPa) 2 Gilbert 1988 888 mbar (hPa) 3 "Labor Day" 1935 892 mbar (hPa) 4 Rita 2005 895 mbar (hPa) 5 Allen 1980 899 mbar (hPa) 6 Katrina 2005 902 mbar (hPa) 7 Camille 1969 905 mbar (hPa) Mitch 1998 905 mbar (hPa) Dean 2007 905 mbar (hPa) 10 Ivan 2004 910 mbar (hPa) Source: U.S. Department of Commerce

[welshkid246]

Most intense Atlantic hurricanes Intensity is measured solely by central pressure Rank Hurricane Season Min. pressure 1 Wilma 2005 882 mbar (hPa) 2 Gilbert 1988 888 mbar (hPa) 3 "Labor Day" 1935 892 mbar (hPa) 4 Rita 2005 895 mbar (hPa) 5 Allen 1980 899 mbar (hPa) 6 Katrina 2005 902 mbar (hPa) 7 Camille 1969 905 mbar (hPa) Mitch 1998 905 mbar (hPa) Dean 2007 905 mbar (hPa) 10 Ivan 2004 910 mbar (hPa) Source: U.S. Department of Commerce

[hummtide]

Damn, perfect pinhole eye!

[leojmiami]

Hurricane wilma...it came to south florida as a cat 3 moving inlind as a cat 2 then re strengthning to a cat 3. Is it possible for a surface low as srtong as hurricane wilma to absord a cold front?!

[PCamron90]

not only that, it absorbed Tropical Storm Alpha as it raced to the northeast extratropical.

[hummtide]

And I thought Gilbert or Mitch were mega monsters... DAMN!

[sabinstreet]

This satellite loop is the best example of what I found so strange about Wilma.  The way that it moved during those couple days when it was at its height was something I've never seen before. It looked like the eye/center of lowest pressure was actually pinwheeling around a secondary center of circulation, so the hurricane looped its way through the satellite pictures. Any idea why this was? I've never seen or heard of anything like it before.

[vmax135]

Hi, that type of motion is relatively common in tropical cyclones, it was just very pronounced with Wilma. It is known as trochoidal motion, which results when the eyewall/eye, are rotating around a common point within the entire storm envelope. In this case, while overall Wilma was moving WNW, the inner-core was rotating cyclonically within the outer eye/eyewall region. (cont.)

[vmax135]

(cont.) The motion is similar to multi-vortex tornadoes when individual suction spots rotate around the overall tornado's center. Another example is my Andrew radar loop, there's a distinct dual-hemispheric structure to the eye, with each lobe rotating around one another as the hurricane made landfall

[sabinstreet]

Fascinating! Is this at all related to eyewall cycles? Forgive me for being a tad naive, I live in Rhode Island. The only real experience I have with hurricanes are my grandmother's stories about 1938 (she saved the Providence Journal publication of photographs from that hurricane which was released just afterwards).

[tompotomacfalls94]

Wilma was starting to go through the eyewall replacement cycle. The "Outer Eyewall" would become the new eyewall as the inner one withered away.

[PrinceAndres98]

@sabinstreet

I noticed that, too. Maybe it's just something to do with the satellite.

[twelfthfloor777]

Most amazing storm I've ever seen. Will we ever see a 2 mile wide eye ever again?

[vmax135]

Yeah, Wilma was definitely a record breaker. I'm sure something will eventually come along that will challenge some of its records, though a 2 mile-wide eye may be hard to come by again...for awhile.

[cookie1749]

@twelfthfloor777 I hope so :D