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. Figure 5 illustrates Wilma's track across South Florida. 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. 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. 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. 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. Figure 1 (left) illustrates a satellite picture of Wilma shortly after its time of peak intensity. 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. 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 developed from a tropical depression near Jamaica, a typical source region for October tropical cyclones, on the afternoon of October 15, 2005. Wilma was a classic October hurricane which struck South Florida as a Category 3 hurricane on October 24th, 2005.
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