Six years ago today...

[HurrMark]

Hurricane Wilma made landfall along the Southwest coast of Florida and turned out to be one of the most destructive storms in history...and an exclamation point to an incredible season. Little did we know that after that, the US would not experience another hurricane of cat-3 or greater intensity for six years...and it's not for a lack of storms, since every season since then except two saw 15+ named storms. The US was blessed to have the longest stretch since the Civil War without a major landfall (not to diminish Ike, Gustav and Irene, but statistically, they were below cat-3...and also not to diminish the Latin American countries, which have taken the brunt of the last six years). We don't know what Rina will do, but assuming it doesn't have much impact to Florida, we are probably safe for another year...considering all the potential out there since 2005, we have been incredibly lucky here in the States. Why have we dodged these systems? Perhaps the answer may lie with earlier developing systems thanks to above average SSTs in the eastern Atlantic, which results in fewer "homebrews" and more Cape Verdes, which tend to recurve early. There was an article in Yahoo news the other week discussing this...

http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20111017/sc_livescience/warmoceanwaterkeepshurricanesatbaystudyfinds

[gilbert88]

I'd say Wilma is more remarkable for its strength and landfalls before reaching Florida.

[Rainband]

I'd say Wilma is more remarkable for its strength and landfalls before reaching Florida.

I agree