Hyperstorm wrote:Even though I had the computer turned on, I tuned to The Weather Channel to watch a historic 12:50 am Tropical Update. Warren Madden was on and I saw that he had a paper in his hand. I knew that meant that he had new information to share. He started by pointing out with a shocking look on his face what a change has occured over the previous 2 hours! He said: "What you have on your screen is OLD information." He continued: "I'm going to read to you the information from 11pm..." He stressed every single detail from 11pm including coordinates, distance, winds, movement, pressure. He said: "Now, you can throw that information away. In my hand I have the LATEST information just received from the 53rd Weather Reconnaissance..." I was starting to think: "He must have some very shocking information. The pressure has probably dropped to the 920s." Was I wrong! When he said that the central pressure has dropped to 901 millibars with a shaky voice and a scary-looking face, my heart stopped. I thought that it just had to be an error from the plane. How can a hurricane strengthen so rapidly in a few hours? He then proceeded to announce that the eye was only 4 miles across. That was also a very shocking moment since it is extremely rare to have such tiny eyes.
Ah yes, I remember. By then for me it was already old news but his voice was shaking like crazy. I have never ever seen anybody on TWC so scared and shaky like that since watching.
The weird thing was at the top of the next hour the new anchors came on, and they mentioned nothing about the pressure drop (and neither did the NHC). There was a small time where I actually thought it was a fluke.
Does anybody remember the poll created the afternoon before the pressure drop about how strong Wilma would be 24 hours later? I believe only two people voted 880's, and I believe those two were joking around. Who knew they'd be right?
