Was Wilma's "pinhole eye" part of a larger eye?

[HURAKAN]

This very neat and cool loop shows that the "eye" appears to have been just like a vortex or part of a larger eye. You can see how the tiny "eye" moves up and down inside a larger eye. Very cool.



Left: Oct. 19. Right: Oct. 21

What do you think?

[MGC]

An excellent example of a trichoidal oscillation and apparent EWRC at the end of the loop.....MGC

[tolakram]

I think Wilma did have a pinhole eye and those images capture the ERC that replaced it. My understanding is they can't last for long and are typically a product of extremely rapid intensification, so the quick destruction of the eye would be expected.

[jinftl]

Amazing how Wilma went from a pinhole at her strongest off the Yucatan to a huge eye upon landfall in Florida...

From NHC report on Wilma, during her ferocious strengthening....
During the strengthening episode, Air Force reconnaissance observations indicated that the eye of the hurricane contracted to a diameter of 2 n mi; this is the smallest eye known to National Hurricane Center (NHC) staff. The estimated minimum central pressure at the time of peak intensity is 882 mb, which is a new record low value for a hurricane in the Atlantic basin. Indeed, the actual minimum pressure may well have been lower than this value, as noted in the following section.

It should be added that the largest 6-, 12-, and 24-h drops in best track central pressure for Wilma, 54 mb from 0000 to 0600 UTC 19 October, 83 mb from 1800 UTC 18 October to 0600 UTC 19 October, and 97 mb from 1200 UTC 18 October to 1200 UTC 19 October, respectively, are by far the largest in the available records for these periods going back to 1851.

At her strongest, Wilma's core windfield was not huge...

HURRICANE WILMA ADVISORY NUMBER 16
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
5 AM EDT WED OCT 19 2005

AT 5 AM EDT...0900Z...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE WILMA WAS LOCATED NEAR
LATITUDE 17.2 NORTH...LONGITUDE 82.5 WEST OR ABOUT 170 MILES...
270 KM...SOUTH-SOUTHWEST OF GRAND CAYMAN AND ABOUT 365 MILES...
590 KM...SOUTHEAST OF COZUMEL MEXICO.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 175 MPH...280 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER
GUSTS. WILMA IS A CATASTROPHIC CATEGORY FIVE HURRICANE ON THE
SAFFIR-SIMPSON SCALE. SOME FLUCTUATIONS IN INTENSITY ARE EXPECTED
DURING THE NEXT 24 HOURS.

HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 15 MILES... 30 KM...
FROM THE CENTER...AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP
TO 160 MILES...260 KM.


By landfall in Florida, the eye had become huge, and this resulted in almost all of South Florida receiving sustained hurricane conditions...

Based on the surface observations and the Doppler data it can be concluded that most of the southeastern Florida peninsula experienced at least category 1 hurricane conditions, and that some parts of northern Miami-Dade County, Broward, and Palm Beach Counties likely had category 2 hurricane conditions, including wind gusts to near 100 kt, at the standard 10 m height above ground. It is expected that the upper floors of the many high rise buildings in South Florida experienced wind speeds greater than occurred there at 10 m.http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/TCR-AL252005_Wilma.pdf

HURRICANE WILMA ADVISORY NUMBER 37
NWS TPC/NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER MIAMI FL
11 AM EDT MON OCT 24 2005

AT 11 AM EDT...1500Z...THE CENTER OF HURRICANE WILMA WAS LOCATED
NEAR LATITUDE 26.9 NORTH... LONGITUDE 80.0 WEST OR ABOUT 15
MILES... 25 KM... NORTH-NORTHEAST OF WEST PALM BEACH FLORIDA.

MAXIMUM SUSTAINED WINDS ARE NEAR 105 MPH...165 KM/HR...WITH HIGHER
GUSTS. WILMA IS A CATEGORY TWO HURRICANE ON THE SAFFIR-SIMPSON
SCALE. WIND SPEEDS ABOUT ONE CATEGORY STRONGER COULD BE
EXPERIENCED IN HIGH RISE BUILDINGS. SOME CONTINUED GRADUAL
WEAKENING IS LIKELY AS WILMA EMERGES OFF THE SOUTHERN FLORIDA
PENINSULA TODAY.

HURRICANE FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP TO 100 MILES...160 KM...
FROM THE CENTER...AND TROPICAL STORM FORCE WINDS EXTEND OUTWARD UP
TO 260 MILES...415 KM.

[Sanibel]

I think the reason it wobbles is because the outer core can't keep up with the inner core.

Whether the cyclone has a second eye ready to separate or not the pinhole eye is still the center with the eyewall and ferocious winds.

[DESTRUCTION5]

I always wonder what them seas were like in and around that eyewall...Wonder if the swells were so large that reefs were exposed in shallow areas...

[Derek Ortt]

seas probably weren't as large as you think because the winds did not cover a very large fetch when it was at its peak

[Category 5]

seas probably weren't as large as you think because the winds did not cover a very large fetch when it was at its peak

Beat me to it, a good example is Ivan, powerful, but weaker than Wilma, but a very large storm, and in the GOM (IIRC not a very deep part of it either) and it kicked up absolutely MASSIVE waves.