Size?

[bucman1]

how large an area do you think wilma will cover?

[boca]

Bigger than Charley but smaller than Katrina.

[bucman1]

Will it cover most of the west coast of Fl?

[Brent]

Defintely not. I would say maybe 40-50 miles from the center for hurricane force winds and maybe up to 150 miles from the center for tropical storm force.

[skysummit]

Will it cover most of the west coast of Fl?

The clouds probably will, but not the winds.

[gpickett00]

Defintely not. I would say maybe 40-50 miles from the center for hurricane force winds and maybe up to 150 miles from the center for tropical storm force.

Isn't that a pretty small wind-field?

[artist]

right now her center burst alone covers around 120 miles. I don't know how much more the wind field will expand but thought a met had said that if she begins to weaken just befoer coming on shore her wind field would then increase even more. I am sure that would refer to her TS strength winds but seems to me it would cover a rather broad area.

[quandary]

Bigger than Charley but smaller than Katrina.

That doesn't cut down the range much at all. Basically you're saying this won't be Tracy and it won't be Floyd or Tip and that's about it.

[Brent]

Defintely not. I would say maybe 40-50 miles from the center for hurricane force winds and maybe up to 150 miles from the center for tropical storm force.

Isn't that a pretty small wind-field?

It's about normal sized. Bigger than Charley and Andrew... smaller than Frances, Katrina, and a little smaller than Rita.

[quandary]

She's got a lot of outer bands. When those things disappear and a period of rapid intensification happens, we'll probably be able to get a good idea of how far the winds extend. Most likely, since surface pressures are low, it'll be a average to average plus sized hurricane, which means winds would extend out (TS force) about 140-180 miles and hurricane forced winds will extend out 40-80 miles. However, in case anyone forgot, Charley last year was a monstrously large wave and tropical storm. The inner core was tiny and after it developed it controlled the size of the storm ever after.