This is getting very monotonous.
Hurricane Wilma moved toward Mexico’s popular Cancun resort Wednesday as an extremely dangerous category 4 storm that has already become the most intense hurricane to form in the Americas since such storms began being recorded over a century ago. The National Hurricane Center in Miami warned that Wilma would be a significant threat to Florida by the weekend and could hit the western coast of Florida as at least a category 3 storm. About the only good thing about the storm’s projected path is that it is far enough south at this point that it would probably not cause much additional damage to the Katrina and Rita-ravaged Gulf of Mexico oil and gas production facilities.

Wilma is on on a curving course that will likely go through through the narrow channel between Cuba and Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula on Friday, then on a northeast track toward Florida. Wilma’s confirmed pressure readings early Wednesday dropped to 882 millibars, which is the lowest minimum pressure ever measured in a hurricane in the Atlantic/Gulf region (lower pressure = stronger storm). The strongest Atlantic storm on record had been 1988’s Hurricane Gilbert, which registered 888 millibars.
For you hurricane junkies, that means that Wilma is stronger than Hurricanes Andrew and Katrina ever were, and is comparable to Hurricanes Rita and Allen at their peak intensities. Including Katrina and Rita earlier this hurricane season, we have now experienced the 1st, 4th, and 6th strongest hurricanes ever recorded in the Atlantic/Gulf region. Wilma is the record-tying 12th hurricane of the season — equaling the same number from the 1969 season — and it is the Atlantic hurricane season’s 21st named storm, which ties the record from 1933 and exhausts the list of hurricane names for this year. If there is another one, then it would be named after letters from the Greek alphabet, starting with Alpha.
As noted while covering Katrina and Rita earlier this year, my favorite sites for keeping up with hurricanes are the following:

Jeff Masters Wunderblog;
Eric Berger’s SciGuy;
StormTrack; and
The National Hurricane Center.

Although there is a good chance that Wilma will weaken as it experiences wind shear and cooler Gulf waters during its approach to Florida, stay tuned. There remains a good chance that it will hit Florida as at least a cat 3 storm, which could make it the worst storm ever to hit the U.S. mainland during the month of October.