Visualizing Irma's Immense Size Compared To Andrew, The Strongest Hurricane To Ever Hit Florida

​As Irma bears down on Florida, many are recalling the destruction wrought by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. Andrew, which was a Category 5 storm, was one of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit the state. 

So how does Irma compare to Andrew in size? It's bigger. A lot bigger, as this comparison via Eric Holthaus shows: 

Here's Andrew digitally super-imposed next to Irma: 

As Adam Rogers notes at WIRED, Irma is an "almost impossible" storm:

Hurricane Irma has become the most powerful Atlantic hurricane on record, category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson scale—over 800 miles wide, roughly the size of Texas, sustained winds of over 185 miles per hour for more than 24 hours, gusts over 200 mph… "Irma is anomalous," says Jim Kossin, an atmospheric scientist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's National Centers for Environmental Information. "This is a record-breaker. Unprecedented. Catastrophic."

[WIRED]

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