hawkeye_wx

The eye is really popping. The pressure is certainly <970 mb now. The next recon is scheduled to be in the storm later this morning.

Models continue to do some funky stuff with Eta in the long range. The Euro is no longer moving it into the Pacific. Instead, like other models, it moves into Central America but then sneaks back into the Caribbean near Belize. It then snakes around the nw Caribbean, turning into a strong hurricane again.

992 mb officially (992 mb w/ 8 kt wind) Last night's 00z HWRF had it nearly correct at midday Sunday. That run had it down to <940 mb by landfall.

Yeah, it's clearly stacked and wrapping up now.

The 12z run of the HWRF is the first run to keep Eta over water, with just a brief touch of the coast, before turning northeast toward Cuba.

We finally have some nice core development this morning. The NHC site has a recon plane scheduled for early this afternoon.

Haiyan was on its own level. I sure wish they could have gotten a recon plane in there.

The surface center is running out ahead of the mid-level center a bit.

NHC says TD advisories will likely begin later this afternoon.

I read that any Greek name would be retired as "Zeta 2020" and the name Zeta would continue to be used in the future.

Amped is probably right about the convective blob north of the center on the GFS messing with the future track. The Euro continues to simply plow this system across Central America.

The latest Euro has even more development in the nw Caribbean after Eta moves into Central America.

987 mb this pass.

It seems the new convection is going to have to pinwheel around the center for several more hours before the pressure responds.

Convection is finally starting to fire again near the center.

A couple days ago this was expected to be sheared and weaken on approach to the gulf coast. Now the models are in the 960s to 970s.

Dropsonde: 982 mb (985 mb with 36 kt wind). That's another 3 mb down from the last pass.

986 mb (dropsonde says 988 with 22 kt wind) is pretty good considering it spent the morning with a naked center.

Another 0.5" of snow fell here this morning, our third snow event this month. I've received nearly a foot of snow over the last two Octobers.

NHC quote --- With the recent improvement in the outflow over Zeta, it appears that the shear that had prevented strengthening has abated. The shear ahead of the storm is expected to remain low while the cyclone traverses the deep, warm water of the northwestern Caribbean Sea. As a result, Zeta is forecast to become a hurricane this morning, and continued strengthening is likely until Zeta moves over the Yucatan peninsula this evening. --- Since that bullish update, Zeta has become decoupled. The naked surface vortex has moved out from under the convection.

It appears the convection has been pushed off to the southeast of the center again.

997 mb now. This system could have a good night if it can fire some deep convection and keep the surface center under it.

The convection really likes the area well south of the center. It has been stuck there for two days.

The surface center can now be seen to the sw of Grand Cayman, where some new convection is bubbling up.

This system's convection keeps shifting south. The broad, weak low center still appears to be north of the convection.