Wilma Is 12th Atlantic Hurricane, Tying 1969 Record
Bloomberg are reporting just now that Hurricane Wilma Is 12th Atlantic Hurricane, Tying 1969 Record.
Wilma became the 12th hurricane of the Atlantic Ocean season today, tying a 1969 record. National Hurricane Center forecasters expect the storm’s winds to reach at least 111 mph later this week as it heads toward Florida.
From the article:
Wilma is forecast to become a “major” hurricane of at least Category 3 strength on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale as it approaches the northwest Caribbean, said Dan Brown, a Hurricane Center meteorologist. The storm then likely will head northeast, threatening the Florida Peninsula, he said in an interview from Miami.
This year’s June 1-Nov.30 season already equaled the busiest on record, matching the 21 named systems of 1933, when Wilma became a tropical storm yesterday.
In Cuba, more than 5,200 people were evacuated in three southeastern provinces because of rains from Wilma, the official Cuban News Agency said on its Web site. The Cuban Meteorological Institute warned on its Web site of the potential danger Wilma presents to the Caribbean island.
There are six weeks left in this year’s record-breaking hurricane season. Katrina, the costliest-ever U.S. natural disaster, slammed into Louisiana in August, killing about 1,250 people. Spain was hit this month by its first tropical cyclone ever.
This year’s Atlantic hurricane season has been the busiest since formal aircraft reconnaissance of weather systems began in 1944. Until this year, that mark stood at 19, in 1995, though less-reliable data indicate 1933 had 21 storms, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.All the letters of the alphabet except Q, U, X, Y and Z are used to name storms in alphabetical order. After Wilma, the storms will be named for letters in the Greek alphabet: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta and so on.
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