OK, so my weather geekiness comes out.
This hurricane season has been nuts, and to close it out all out, Wilma (the last name available before they start going to the Greek Alphabet) is now the strongest and fastest developing storm in the Atlantic Basin in recorded history.
From http://www.nashvillewx.com - WKRN’s (ABC2 - Nashville) Weather Blog:
A hurricane’s maximum sustained winds are usually used to determine its strength, but meteorologists also rely on the storm’s minimum central pressure. You hear us mention low pressure and high pressure in everyday weathercasts…although we tend to report the value in inches of mercury (29.98″ is considered normal). In the scientific community pressure is reported in millibars (1012 mb is normal). A hurricane is really just a tremendous area of low pressure, and the big ones can get exceptionally low. Early this morning Wilma set the record for the lowest pressure ever recorded in the Atlantic basin with 882 mb. A list of the six strongest hurricanes (according to pressure) reveals how active and strong this season’s storms have been:
1. 882 mb, Wilma, 2005
2. 888 mb, Gilbert, 1988
3. 892 mb, Florida Keys, 1935
4. 897 mb, Rita, 2005
5. 899 mb, Allen, 1980
6. 902 mb, Katrina, 2005
The good news, if there is any, is that Wilma should weaken to a category 3 (perhaps 2) before landfalling in southwest Florida this weekend.
This thing dropped 62 millibar in pressure in a little less than 6 hours.
If this weird tropical weather pattern isn’t a sign of changes, I don’t know what is. Add to that the fact that Boston has gotten over a foot of rain in a little over 2 weeks, it’s raining/thunderstorming in LA in October and snowing in Denver, and I’d say that atmospheric conditions are changing. I have this sneaky suspicion that things are only going to get worse.