Hurricane Irma continues to raise the bar in the threshold of hurricane power. Firstly setting a new record for strongest Atlantic hurricane outside of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico to a tie with Florida Keys 1935, Gilbert 1988 and Wilma 2005 for 2nd strongest in Atlantic based on 185 mph sustained winds. Allen 1980 has winds of 190 mph.

However… Irma has now set a new WORLD RECORD for having uninterrupted sustained winds of 185 mph for 33 hours. The previous record was 24 hours with Haiyan in 2013!

https://twitter.com/philklotzbach/status/905631742391762944

Irma became the first Category 5 in the tropical Atlantic since Hugo 1989.

With a pressure of 914mb, Irma is the strongest Atlantic Hurricane outside of the western Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico and deepest throughout the Atlantic basin since Dean 2007 and 10th deepest since the beginning of the satellite era.

It also appears to have been the strongest ever landfall for the Leeward Islands with reports of the tiny island of Barbuda all but wiped out. Saint Martin was severely hit but Antigua largely spared.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPNbbVm5cwU

https://twitter.com/NASA_SPoRT/status/905402442363400193

https://twitter.com/philklotzbach/status/905037369627222016

https://twitter.com/NHC_Atlantic/status/905080927948349440

https://twitter.com/cschultzwx/status/905080887389323266

https://twitter.com/philklotzbach/status/905210628297461760

https://twitter.com/MetMattTaylor/status/905310131788947456

https://twitter.com/MarkVogan/status/905407021284982785

https://twitter.com/53rdWRS/status/905404366831710208

https://twitter.com/philklotzbach/status/905445230005989377

https://twitter.com/AlexJLamers/status/905208065464700928

Northern Leeward Islands experience strongest hurricane hit on record and a tie for strongest Atlantic landfall

https://twitter.com/iCyclone/status/905333341427187713

https://twitter.com/philklotzbach/status/905574718496923649

https://twitter.com/TTWeatherCenter/status/905333080881291264

https://twitter.com/bienglace/status/905398354275946496

https://twitter.com/iCyclone/status/905474964425367553

https://twitter.com/whetherPROOF/status/905490888922673152

https://twitter.com/mikeseidel/status/905597553512734720

https://twitter.com/weatherchannel/status/905583429047201794

Tags: hurricane irma