Episode 133
Hurricane Irma
Wed, 2017-Sep-13 01:30 UTC
Length - 3:46
Direct Link
Welcome to popular Wiki of the Day where we read the summary of a popular Wikipedia page every day.
With 171,569 views on Tuesday, 12 September 2017 our article of the day is Hurricane Irma.
Hurricane Irma was an extremely powerful and catastrophic Cape Verde type hurricane, the most intense hurricane observed in the Atlantic since Dean in 2007. It was also the most intense Atlantic hurricane to strike the United States since Katrina in 2005, and the first major hurricane to hit the state of Florida since Wilma in 2005. The ninth named storm, fourth hurricane, and second major hurricane of the 2017 Atlantic hurricane season, Irma caused widespread and catastrophic damage throughout its long lifetime, particularly in parts of the northeastern Caribbean.
Irma developed on August 30 near the Cape Verde Islands from a tropical wave that had moved off the west African coast three days prior. Under favorable conditions, Irma rapidly intensified shortly after formation, becoming a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson scale within a mere 24 hours. It became a Category 3 hurricane (and therefore a major hurricane) shortly afterward; however, the intensity fluctuated for the next several days due to a series of eyewall replacement cycles. On September 5, Irma became a Category 5 hurricane, and by early the next day, Irma reached peak intensity with 185 mph (295 km/h) winds and a minimum pressure of 914 mbar (914 hPa; 27.0 inHg), making it the strongest tropical cyclone worldwide so far in 2017. After dropping to Category 3 intensity as it passed along Cuba, on September 10 the storm re-intensified to Category 4 as it crossed warm waters between Cuba and the Florida Keys before making landfall on Cudjoe Key with maximum sustained winds of 130 mph (215 km/h). Irma dropped back to Category 3 by the time it made a second Florida landfall on Marco Island. Irma weakened to a Category 2 hurricane later that day, the first time it weakened below major hurricane status in over a week.
The storm caused catastrophic damage in Barbuda, Saint Barthélemy, Saint Martin, Anguilla and the Virgin Islands as a Category 5 hurricane. As of September 12, the hurricane has caused at least 55 deaths (one in Anguilla, one in Barbados, three in Barbuda, 10 in Cuba, 11 in the French West Indies, one in Haiti, three in Puerto Rico, four on the Dutch side of Sint Maarten, 17 in the contiguous United States, and four in the U.S. Virgin Islands).
This recording reflects the Wikipedia text as of 01:30 UTC on Wednesday, 13 September 2017.
For the full current version of the article, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Irma.
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