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If you haven’t already been following the gathering strength of Hurricane Wilma the latest news is that it is the most intense Atlantic storm ever recorded.

On Wednesday it became a Category 5 monster with 282 km/h wind that forecasters warned was "extremely dangerous."
Wilma was dumping rain on Central America and Mexico. A hurricane watch was in effect for the east coast of Mexico's Yucatan peninsula, parts of Cuba and the Cayman Islands, and forecasters warned of a "significant threat" to Florida by the weekend.



"All interests in the Florida Keys and the Florida peninsula should closely monitor the progress of extremely dangerous Hurricane Wilma" - National Hurricane Centre in Miami.

Wilma's top sustained winds reached 282 km/h early Wednesday in the most rapid strengthening ever recorded in a hurricane. At the same time Tuesday, Wilma was only a tropical storm with winds of 113 km/h.
Its confirmed pressure readings Wednesday morning dropped to 882 millibars _ the lowest ever measured in a hurricane in the Atlantic basin. The strongest on record based on the lowest pressure reading is Hurricane Gilbert in 1988, which dipped to 888 millibars.
Typically, the lower the pressure, the faster the air speeds. But because the pressure around each storm is different, lower pressure doesn't always correspond to a specific wind speed.
Wilma was more powerful than the devastating September 1935 hurricane that hit the Florida Keys, the strongest Atlantic hurricane to make landfall on record. But Wilma wasn't expected to keep its record strength for long, as higher disruptive atmospheric winds in the Gulf of Mexico around the hurricane should weaken it before landfall.

At 8 a.m, local time, the hurricane was centred about 560 km southeast of Cozumel, Mexico. Maximum sustained wind remained at 282 km/h. It was moving west-northwest at nearly 13 km/h and was expected to turn northwest.
The storm may dump up to 63 cm of rain in mountainous areas of Cuba through Friday, and as much as 38cm in the Caymans and Jamaica through Thursday. Up to 30cm was possible from Honduras through the Yucatan peninsula.
Jamaica, Cuba, Nicaragua and Honduras were getting heavy rain from the storm, though it wasn't likely to make landfall in any of those countries. Forecasts showed it would likely turn toward the narrow Yucatan Channel between Cuba and Mexico's Cancun region - then move into the Mexican gulf.

With heavy rain, high winds, and rough seas already pounding coastal areas, flood-prone Honduras warned that Wilma posed "an imminent threat to life and property" and closed two seaports on its Caribbean coast. Neighbouring Nicaragua also declared an alert. Authorities in the Cayman Islands had earlier called an alert.
Honduras and its neighbours already are recovering from flooding and mudslides caused earlier this month from storms related to Hurricane Stan.
At least 796 people were killed, most of them in Guatemala, with many more still missing.

Cuba issued a hurricane watch for the western end of the island from Matanzas to Pinar del Rio, as well as the Isle of Youth. Mexico issued a hurricane watch for nearly its entire Caribbean coast from Punta Gruesa to Cabo Catoche, an area that includes the resort of Cancun.
Wilma already had been blamed for one death in Jamaica as a tropical depression Sunday. It has flooded several low-lying communities and triggered mudslides that blocked roads and damaged several homes. Some 250 people are in shelters throughout the island.
Although the storm was not expected to approach Florida until the weekend, some residents began buying water, canned food and other emergency supplies early. Many said they take every storm seriously now, after witnessing the devastation from a succession of hurricanes that have ravaged the southern United States.

Wilma's track could take it near Punta Gorda on Florida's south-western Gulf Coast and other areas in the state hit by Hurricane Charley, a Category 4 storm, in August 2004.
Forecasters urged Florida residents to closely monitor Wilma. The state has seen seven hurricanes hit or pass close by since August causing more than $20 billion in estimated damage and killing nearly 150 people.

In the Cayman Islands, authorities urged businesses to close early Tuesday to give employees time to prepare for the storm. Schools were ordered to close on Wednesday.

In Mexico, the MTV Latin America Video Music Awards ceremony, originally scheduled to be held Thursday at a seaside park south of Cancun, were moved up one day to avoid possible effects from Wilma.
Forecasters said Wilma should avoid the central U.S. Gulf coast devastated by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which killed more than 1,200 people and caused billions of dollars in damage.
The hurricane is the record-tying 12th of the season, the same number reached in 1969. That is the most for one season since record-keeping began in 1851.

On Monday, Wilma became the Atlantic hurricane season's 21st named storm, tying the record set in 1933 and exhausting the list of names for this year.
The six-month hurricane season does not end until November 30. Any new storms would be named with letters from the Greek alphabet, starting with Alpha.