Hurricane Wilma began as strongest hurricane to date in this record-breaking hurricane season. Although Wilma weakened last night to a category 4 hurricane with winds exceeding 150 miles an hour, she will likely fluctuate in strength over the next 24 hours yet remain very dangerous. The storm could re-intensify today. State Meteorologist Ben Nelson says hurricane reconnaissance aircraft initially reported a record, minimum central pressure of near 882 millibars, the lowest ever measured in a hurricane in the Atlantic Basin.

"Long before any potential threat to the state of Florida, Wilma is going to go down in the record books as the fastest strengthening storm that we've observed in our era of records going back to the 1850's. We had a drop of about 78 millibars pressure in 9 hours, that's the fastest intensification we've ever had."

Along with the record low pressure, Wilma ties with the 1969 season as the 12th hurricane to form in the Atlantic basin. She is also is the 21st named storm of the 2005 Hurricane Season, matching 1933 as the most active hurricane season on record.