Hurricane Wilma

Landfall | Summary
Posting Date: October 24, 2005, 10:30:00 AM

Hurricane Wilma made landfall as a Category 3 storm at 6:30 A.M. EDT this morning near Cape Romano, Florida, about 20 miles west of Everglades City and 22 miles south of Naples. Maximum sustained winds at landfall were estimated at 125 mph with higher gusts. Wilma is the eighth hurricane to affect Florida in 15 months. Wilma weakened to a Category 2 storm with 110 mph winds as it raced across the Florida Peninsula toward the Atlantic coast. As of 9 a.m.the storm is centered about 45 miles southwest of West Palm Beach. Wilma is moving northeast at about 25 mph. Hurricane force winds extend outward up to 90 miles from the center and tropical storm force winds extend outward up to 230 miles. Estimated central pressure is 952 mb. A somewhat weaker Wilma is expected to skirt the southern end of Lake Okeechobee and exit into the Atlantic near West Palm Beach later this morning. Wilma’s forward speed will then increase and, by early Wednesday, the center is expected to be off the coast of Canada. Near the landfall location, Hurricane Wilma’s wind speeds were strong enough to cause structural damage to light metal buildings and mobile homes, and rip away roof coverings and siding. Storm surge of 12 to 18 feet may result in additional damage to low-lying properties. On the east coast, AIR expects to see damage to non-structural building components, such as awnings and carports. The storm has left more than two million customers without power. Rainfall of between 4 and 6 inches is forecast for central and southern Florida, with up to 10 inches possible in some areas. Severe flooding is reported in Key West. Flooding was also reported on Marco Island and downtown Naples. The AIR tropical cyclone team has run scenarios using the latest information about the storm’s meteorological parameters and track across south Florida. Eleven of these are posted on the Scenarios page of this website. Note that the results provided in this posting are for landfall in the U.S. only. On the Event Sets page there are both “All” and “Select” event sets for CATRADER and CLASIC/2. The “All” event set contains the full set of scenarios simulated for this event and is therefore the most appropriate method for estimating your potential losses. A set of 11 specific scenarios, which are selected from the full event set and represent the range of potential losses across the full industry loss distribution, are available under the “Select” event set. Also included on the Scenarios page is the probability of loss exceedance curve for the industry using the “All” event set.

Landfall | Downloads
Posting Date: October 24, 2005, 10:30:00 AM