Windspeed

Impressive large eye that continues to warm. Deep surrounding band of coldest CTs. If you'll notice the geometric pattern within the low-level clouds in the eye, most likely the result of multiple rotating mesovorticies currently riding around the eyewall. I'd imagine this is Cat 5 bound again.

The past few days have been glorious.

Agreed. Huge backside feeder that is still attached and feeding into the eyewall versus being a closed off concentric feature. Champi is bombing. Very intense eyewall ongoing.

Love getting these Guam reflectivity shots on this monster...

Again, they are so very lucky. Champi continues to intensify. Also, note the very intense meso in the northern eyewall at the end of this animation with the bright purple reflectivity. Amazing...

No doubt Champi is very intense at the moment. In the above radar, you can see the intense mesos rotating within the eye. The IR tells the rest below. Guam is so incredibly lucky this isn't barrelling due west at just a few ticks higher latitude.

Guam may come out of this very lucky. It looks as if the northern eyewall may only just graze or even miss the southern shoreline. The inner core winds will remain entirely offshore.

Here's the most recent grab...

The Mexican shoreline is getting raked by Simon. However, Simon's small core is a frog's hair distance offshore to avoid weakening versus strengthening any further. It's a delicate balance that's preventing Category 5 intensity but not yet detrimental enough to induce weakening. Still, the abrupt change in elevation near the coast and such influence on inflow will still disrupt Simon and should begin to weaken it if the core parallels the coast any closer. Granted, that means very little with respect to flash flooding that is underway with moist low-level southerly fetch within the eastern circulation feeder bands and orgographic lift.

It seems like we always have to beat it into people's skulls during landfalls. It's the maximum sustained winds possible as an estimate over water for a reason. It's a marine storm before it is a land storm, and advisories have to account for what is occurring in real time over the ocean surface for any poor ships/souls that might find themselves in the worst scenario. But due to frictional convergence / drag, you will almost never see those sustained winds over land unless you have a super intense eyewall with embedded multiple mesos rotating around that overcome frictional forces with insane ground level velocities. As a general rule, the highest wind reports over land are always in gusts due to this process. You might get those highest sustained winds right on the immediate beach/shoreline perpendicular to the onshore motion of the inner edge of the eyewall, but the equipment would need to be in the right place at the right time and that is exceedingly difficult placement and timing to pull off. Interestingly, and as no surprise, the instrument anemometers that have been positioned in the right place and at the right time during past landfalls that recorded sustained winds near maximum have generally failed during that event. I also need to add that the reason most immediate advisory packages don't rapidly ramp down maximum sustained winds after landfall is twofold: 1) part of the eyewall or outer eyewall may still be over water, 2) any large estuaries even after landfall may still experience maximum winds. Once the entire circulation is inland, subsequent advisory packages tend to ramp down quickly.

Simon appears to be doing what most EPAC hurricanes have done this year. It's undergoing rapid intensification. A pinhole eye has formed in the direct center of the tiny CDO. This is a microcane for now and on it's way to becoming a major hurricane today. It will most likely grow in size over the weekend. It's tiny core will expand, and the pinehole eye should give way to a larger eye eventually.

4:00 AM CDT Fri Oct 09 Location: 26.4°N 88.0°W Moving: NNE at 15 mph Min pressure: 963 mb Max sustained: 110 mph

Satellite continues to improve, and we have a warming clear eye now. Category 3 is looking much more likely. If they don't pull the trigger in the 4AM CDT package, they probably will later with an intermediate advisory.

Best structure Isaias has had in its lifecycle so far. Perhaps a window here for some brief intensification prior to increasing shear today.