The following post is NOT an official forecast and should not be used as such. It is just the opinion of the poster and may or may not be backed by sound meteorological data. It is NOT endorsed by any professional institution including storm2k.org For Official Information please refer to the NHC and NWS products.
Well, I spent 1/2 an hour creating a detailed local wind intensity map in accordance with my predicted forecast track. With very little reservation, I believe that Wilma will attain Category 4 intensity in the northwestern Caribbean Sea and maintain this strength while passing through the Yucatan Channel, with the strongest winds (120kt) thankfully remaining offshore. The wind radii may be a tad too large in this region, but nevertheless, I believe Wilma will be yet another enormous storm. With increasing shear across the SErn GoM, I think that 24L should weaken to Category 3 status, but with an increasing forward speed, strong winds should be observed well inland.
It should be noted that if the track is further west than currently anticipated and Wilma catches a significant piece of the Yucatan, then a distrupted inner core may not fully recover, due to the increasingly hostile upper-level conditions over the Gulf. Accordingly so, the US landfall intensity for this second scenario would be significanly lower (and further north). Critiques welcome as I've never created a graphical forecast such as this before.
I'll try to update this map at least once every 24hr as my forecast track changes, but PLEASE NOTE that this is not in any way an official forecast and DO NOT base any decisions of importance on the above graphic.
