Pressure is down another 2 mb to 989 mb in the last hour.
Hurricane Oscar
2:00 PM EDT Sat Oct 19Location: 21.4°N 70.6°WMoving: W at 12 mphMin pressure: 989 mbMax sustained: 80 mph
Hurricane Oscar Special Discussion Number 2
NWS National Hurricane Center Miami FL AL162024
200 PM EDT Sat Oct 19 2024
This is a special advisory to update the initial and forecast
intensity for Oscar and current watches and warnings. An Air Force
Reserve Hurricane Hunter mission is currently flying through the
system, and in their second southwest-to-northeast leg found 700 mb
flight level winds of 76 kt, and a minimum central pressure of 989
mb. The plane also reported a very small 3 n mi wide eye. A
dropsonde recently launched in the northern quadrant also had a 150
m boundary layer mean wind of 80 kt. A blend of these data supports
upgrading Oscar to a hurricane this advisory with maximum sustained
winds of 70 kt. The intensity forecast has been updated accordingly,
and is substantially higher than the previous one.
Due to this unexpected higher intensity, the government of the
Bahamas has issued a Hurricane Warning for the Turks and Caicos
Islands and Southeastern Bahamas. The government of Cuba has also
issued a Hurricane Watch for the same area currently under a
Tropical Storm Warning.