Atlantic hurricane season equals record

MIAMI - The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season has tied a 72-year-old record for busiest ever with the formation of Tropical Storm Wilma, the 21st storm of the year.

Wilma quickly gained strength and forecasters said it could be a hurricane by Tuesday as it took a path toward the Gulf of Mexico, where residents along the US Gulf coast are still recovering from the effects of hurricanes Katrina, Rita and Dennis this summer.

Oil markets quivered as Wilma formed in the northwestern Caribbean, too close to the Gulf oil and gas industry, which produces up to 25 per cent of US supplies.
At 7am NZT, the centre of Wilma was about 380km south-southeast of Grand Cayman, the largest island in the Cayman Islands, a British colony south of Cuba, the US National Hurricane Centre in Miami said.

It was drifting southward but was expected to take up a path to the west in the next day, forecasters said. Storm alerts were in effect for the Cayman Islands and parts of coastal Honduras.

Maximum sustained winds were 80km/h and Wilma was expected to strengthen in the next 24 hours. A tropical storm becomes a hurricane when winds reach 119km/h.

The hurricane centre's official long-range track had Wilma crossing the tip of Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula and emerging into the gulf early on Saturday. But computer forecast models differed widely on the future path, some taking Wilma across the Yucatan and others pushing it farther east toward Florida.

The 2005 Atlantic hurricane season has been one of the worst ever. In addition to its 21 storms -- which tied a record set in 1933 -- the season produced Hurricane Katrina, which is likely to be the most expensive storm in history.

At one point a Category 5 hurricane, the strongest on the five-stage hurricane scale, Katrina swamped the levees protecting New Orleans and flooded the famed jazz city, causing insured damage estimated at more than US$30 billion ($43.57 billion) and killing more than 1200 people and displacing one million.

Katrina's damage toll is likely to exceed that of Hurricane Andrew, which caused more than US$25b in damage when it hit southern Florida in 1992.

The naming of Wilma -- tropical cyclones are given names when sustained winds reach 63km/h -- meant the hurricane centre has reached the end of its seasonal list of male and female names. If more tropical storms form this season, forecasters will begin using the Greek alphabet, starting with Alpha.

- REUTERS