© UW-Madison/CIMSSAbove: VIIRS infrared image of Hurricane Irma taken at 1:35 am EDT Wednesday, September 6, 2017. At the time, the island of Barbuda was in the eye, and Irma was a Category 5 storm with 185 mph winds.
Hurricane Irma smashed into the small Lesser Antilles islands of Barbuda (population 1,638), Saint Barthelemy (population 9,000), Anguilla (population 15,000), and Saint Martin/Sint Maarten (population 8,000/33,000) early Wednesday as a mighty Category 5 hurricane with 185 mph winds. As the front southwestern eyewall of Irma hit, Barbuda
reported sustained winds of 118 mph, gusting to 155 mph, before the instrument failed. The minimum pressure in the eye was 916 mb on Barbuda and St. Barthelemy. Preliminary reports from these islands indicate heavy wind and storm surge damage occurred. On Saint Martin, storm surge flooding to rooftop level
was observed. Irma brought a storm surge of 7.95 feet (2.42 meters) to Barbuda, according to a Wednesday afternoon
blog post by storm surge scientist Dr. Hal Needham. Barbuda has not been heard from yet.
A hurricane with top winds of 185 mph has never been recorded in these islands, and Irma's landfall intensity of 185 mph winds in the Leeward islands is tied with the 1935 Florida Keys Labor Day Hurricane as the highest landfall intensity on record for an Atlantic hurricane (third place globally.) The most recent close analog for Irma may be
Hurricane Hugo (1989), which
tore through the Leewards and struck Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm, causing $3 billion in damage (1989 dollars) and 72 deaths.
Comment: In July this year eight tropical cyclones were spinning simultaneously in the north Pacific Ocean for first time since 1974.