How Does Hurricane Wilma compare to Typhoon Tip?

Typhoon Tip on October 12, 1979  (Source: NOAA)

Although September is the busiest month of the Atlantic hurricane season, the season runs through November 30.  Many significant hurricanes have also formed in October.  One October hurricane that formed during the record setting 2005 season went on to become the most powerful hurricane on record in the Atlantic Ocean.

Wilma was named a tropical storm on October 17, 2005, and quickly became a hurricane in the southwestern Caribbean Sea.  Under ideal atmospheric conditions, Wilma quickly intensified into the most powerful hurricane on record in the Atlantic Ocean with maximum sustained winds of 185 mph and a minimum air pressure of 882 millibars.  By comparison, standard sea level pressure is approximately 1013 millibars.  Scientists consider air pressure to be a more accurate measure of intensity in a tropical storm or hurricane.   

Wilma was remarkable for other reasons too – such as being the record setting fourth Category 5 hurricane to form during the 2005 season.  It was also the last “major” hurricane to make landfall in the United States.  Fortunately, Wilma weakened to Category 3 intensity before making landfall in southwest Florida on October 24.  Although Wilma was the strongest hurricane on record to form in the Atlantic Ocean, it was not the strongest hurricane to form worldwide.

That distinction goes to Typhoon Tip which formed in 1979.  The only difference between a hurricane and a “typhoon” is geography.  West of the International Date Line in the Pacific Ocean, hurricanes are called typhoons.  Like Wilma, Tip formed in October and became a very large storm over the open ocean.  On October 12, 1979, Typhoon Tip reached its peak intensity with maximum sustained winds of 190 mph and a minimum air pressure of 870 millibars while west of Guam.  In addition to being the world’s strongest hurricane on record, Typhoon Tip also has the distinction of being the world’s largest observed hurricane.  The diameter of Tip’s wind field spanned nearly 1,400 miles.  Fortunately, Typhoon Tip weakened before making landfall in Japan, but still caused significant damage.  

Due to the large size of the tropical western Pacific Ocean, many of the world’s most powerful typhoons have formed there.  The Japanese Meteorological Agency reports that Hurricane Wilma would only rank 8^th on the list of most powerful hurricanes – or typhoons – to form in the Western Pacific Ocean.