Flashback Friday: Hurricane Wilma 2005
Thirteen years ago, today, Cat 5 monster Hurricane Wilma became the most intense Atlantic hurricane ever recorded. As part of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, Wilma’s mbar pressure reached a low of 882 (hPa; 27.05 inHg) and the eye shrank to 2.3 miles in diameter, the smallest ever seen. She made landfall several times but, the Yucatán Peninsula, Cuba and South Florida suffered the worst. She did $27.4 billion dollars in total damage and claimed 87 lives. Her name has been retired.
Other October 19 history:
1789…..John Jay was sworn in as the first Chief Justice of the United States.
1900…..Max Planck discovers the law of black-body radiation or Planck’s Law. (This makes my head hurt.)
1987…..Stock markets crashed all around the world beginning in Hong Kong, spreading to Europe and, then, hitting the United States on Black Monday.
2005…..Saddam Hussein goes on trial for crimes against humanity.
October 20, 2018 at 11:40 AM
That was a scary hurricane. Yikes. It doesn’t seem possible that it’s 13 years already since Saddam Husseins trial wow
October 20, 2018 at 2:25 PM
Yeah, it was… I was living in Texas at the time. We were watching it closely.
October 20, 2018 at 6:46 PM
I arrived here in NY just ahead of Irene in 2011. Literally. I was on one of the last flights they were letting into NY. Luckily ‘im indoors had driven down to meet me as I would have been stranded in NYC as they weren’t allowing any further flights. We had a cabin in the Adirondacks that luckily was untouched but properties either side were hammered. The whole region took a pasting. They’re a lot scarier than people in Europe realise I think
October 20, 2018 at 3:08 PM
That is an interesting point. Europe doesn’t get hurricanes, do they. Tornadoes?
I understand that the UK doesn’t get tornadoes or hurricanes. Hail storms? Central Texas has brutal hail storms…and a roof repair & car dent removal industry because of it.
October 20, 2018 at 3:14 PM
The U.K. actually does get both tornadoes and hurricanes, just not of the severity they turn to here. I don’t think a tornado there has done more than tip a dustbin over! England had one bad hurricane in my life time in 1987. Ireland just got belted with a hurricane which was bad for them but not by US standards. Hail is common in both countries too but I’ve also never seen it as big there as here
October 20, 2018 at 3:27 PM
Wow. Thanks for the info!