When Nick Shay hit the sack shortly after the 11 p.m. hurricane forecast, he knew he would awaken Wednesday morning to a much stronger Wilma.

The storm was hovering in what historically has been a hurricane hothouse -- the northwestern Caribbean Sea in October, a place of wispy winds and warm water.

But even Shay, a professor of meteorology and oceanography at the University of Miami, was a bit stunned at what Wilma had become. The hurricane morphed from a 110-mph Category 2 storm to 175-mph Cat 5 monster before the sun had even come up, breaking records for the fastest, fiercest intensification ever recorded.

Wilma, expected to end up at least somewhat weaker anywhere from Mexico to Miami, is the latest -- and most eye-opening -- product of a place that consistently spawns some of the most powerful storms of the hurricane season at a time when the public hopes things are quieting down.

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