Remembering The Big Ones: Wilma, Typhoon Tip

"...AIR FORCE RECONNAISSANCE PLANE REPORTED 884 MB... THE LOWEST MINIMUM PRESSURE EVER MEASURED IN A HURRICANE IN THE ATLANTIC BASIN..."

Early on the morning of October 19, 2005, I reported that NHC's statement on my blog as Hurricane Wilma went into the record books. But this week is actually the anniversary of two monster storms - Typhoon Tip, the strongest* cyclone in recorded history, and Hurricane Wilma, the Atlantic's strongest hurricane.

You can read more of my blog entries on Wilma, but the highlights include...

- Her all-time record of 26.05" pressure and her tiny eye (which became large enough to see an island through it and get a great 3-d view from the International Space Station and a 3-d rainfall shot from TRMM - Her deadly trip through the Caribbean, Cuba and hit on Mexico (65 inches of rain!)

- Her hit on Florida (as a Cat 3) which spawned a mysterious "2" formation on radar

- Her contribution to an early season heavy snow storm in New England

This week is also the anniversary of the strongest hurricane in recorded history on Earth, Super Typhoon Tip in 1979. You can read archived news articles about the storm (from 1979!) on Google. By the time Tip's center hit Japan, it was a shadow of its former self.

TYPHOON TIP ( - MORE SAT SHOTS)

Although the storm holds the record for the lowest measured pressure inside a storm (25.69"!), WikiPedia points out that recon flights in the West Pacific were discontinued in 1987 and several storms since then could have beat it. The storm had 190 mph sustained winds (gusts almost assuredly over 200 mph). He was also 1,380 miles across, or roughly half the size of the United States. It's important to remember though that (in this meteorologist's opinion) because there's not enough open ocean, it's unlikely a storm that large (or powerful) could ever develop in the Atlantic basin.

TYPHOON TIP SIZE COMPARISON ()