 Shortly after peaking in intensity, the coldest cloud tops surrounding the eye warmed slightly and an outer eyewall began to develop, signifying an eyewall replacement cycle was occurring. By late on October 19, the winds in Hurricane Wilma decreased to 160 mph (260 km / h) as the inner 5-mile (8 km) wide eye weakened and the wind field expanded. Early on October 20 the hurricane weakened to Category 4 status after the small, inner eye dissipated and the 45-mile (72 km) wide outer eyewall became the dominant eye. At the time, the pressure measured 892 mbar (26.34 inHg), the second-lowest known pressure for a Category 4 hurricane (Super Typhoon Judy had an 887 mb pressure at peak intensity), and Wilma retained the large eyewall as it turned northwestward. Initially, the hurricane was forecast to re-intensify into a Category 5 hurricane, with one forecast predicting it to make landfall on the Yucatán Peninsula with winds of 165 mph (266 km / h), though Wilma remained a strong Category 4 hurricane as it tracked northwestward.
