Wilma, Category 5 and Breaking Records

The answer is a resounding yes!
BTW: ...as many on this site have been implying in their own inimitable way, Florida may not be the last area of concern once leaves the state (assuming she actually landfalls where we are expecting...and proceeds to tranverse in cooperative fashion). Firstly, I've seen at least two complete micro-loops as oscillatory motion since her needle point eye of terror materialized overnight last night, which means, she's enhancing the processing of the SST's... I still think though that she's just barely moving fast enough that it won't be too much a detriment to her intensity because the thermocline in her vicinity is quite deep!

...Fluctuations will inevitably occur and be most likely brought about by perturbational affects of her own doing; convection processes balanced against undetermined 's.... - nothing new there... but all of which there is virtually no predictive skill for timing; let alone subsequent affects on her intensity...

...We notice that her structure, while remaining essentially the same, is not associated with the extreme cold cloud tops that were almost off the scale overnight. This morning I took note of what appeared to be a small amount of dry air knifing into her wester circulation area. (Not sure if this has already been covered this morning so apologies for any redundances - actually, we're probably all repeating ourselves to some degree by now...) Anyway, more of this is actually probably having to do with the diurnal cycle, which is negative during the day (although usually more so toward the later afternoon, which is why I suggest some dry air may have been gulped into the circulation - perhaps masked by the cirrus shield...which by the way is fanstastically large!

...Anyway, for intensity enthusiasts, we are at or near a theoretical limitation for heat content, u/a mechanics and surrounding prospective inhibitors. mentions or at least hints this overnight or this morning... . What that means is that it is more likely that fluctuations will be weaker rather than stronger. But, at 175mph and an all-time record breaking low pressure, a bit weaker is still utterly dimented for terror - yikes. This reminds me...it will be interesting to see how she behaves as she moves from an area of lower than normal environmental pressure, toward and area of more normal.. If she maintains her core pressure while she goes, the wind will have to compensate... The trick is, the water is slightly cooler along her predicted track between the Yucatan Penisula and Florida, so she probably will not have the convection to maintain such low pressure.. It will be interesting to see how this aspect evolves.

...There are a lot of dimensions to this.. .For one, the amount of geography altimately affected by in the U.S. could be staggering... If these left course continue to materialize and ultimately verfiy as she's climbing in latitude, we could have substantial marine impacts from Florida's East Coast all the way to Bar Harbor in Maine. If not impacted by wind, surf "might" be an issue... And, should slam into Buzzard's Bay in Massachusetts like the 06Z and the are indicating, we are likely going to have a 1938-like scenario of funneling storm surge... The other thing about this: The accelerated movement and current path notion of these models is such that brings her along the length of the Gulf Stream after leaving Florida, then turning her N near about 37 latitude by about 73w (appr). This is disconcerting to say the least... Basically, she's moving quickly across Florida as a cat 3 (if they are lucky..), but so quickly that she may not have a lot of time to exhaust momentum over the relatively flat land area of the Florida Peninsula... Then, she's zipping up the East Coastal waters at some 35-45mph along the length of the Gulf Stream... May not be enough to "strengthen" but could just be a maintenance course.. Then, she does have to traverse the N wall of the Gulf stream and colder water that lurks for about 3 degrees of latitude S of Long Island, but at a very fast forward speed (which is climatologically both favored and necessary given the synoptics of 4 days from now) she will likely have limited time to weaken before crossing that inhibition.....

...Could make some history in New England should that verify; which is augmented by the fact that we would have uniquely enhanced meso-scale aspect associated with lift just west of inevitable coastal boundary, over an area that CAN NOT TAKE any more rain. Also, with saturated ground and an unusually late foliage season that I can personally vouch for in the area of Eastern New England, the timbre cost could be large....

...But, in the end, I think it important to take this one step at a time and the Floridians diserve all our attention for now.. Good luck!

I figure I ought to add to this before the qauntlet drops... this is all predicated on the assumption that the mroe threatening guidance is correct! it is note worthy that the 12Z guidance has backed off on intensity from the two models in question; and it has already been noted by another member that the ECM was not as threatening to latter interests in the 00Z run. Frankly, i find it a little dubious of the 12Z GFS to take it into the ne coast of the Yucatan.. we must remember, the models have a bit of a memory too... they'd logged a lot of Yuc interaction and then a smartly out to sea solution for days...then, one sampling and it looked a lot different...It may just be that we are seeing another oscillation in the models based on momentum from previous runs.

Edited by typhoon_tip (Wed Oct 19 2005 05:31 PM)

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