Probably perfect timing. This is peaking in satellite appearance. We’ll see if observational data concurs.
Unless there’s a slow ERC or this ticks further west or east than expected, I am finding it increasingly hard to believe there won’t be a category five strike.
I was just going to post. Just a big burst around the eye and core in the last few minutes. There is another flight that just took off. It’s heading in at the right time..
Yeah it looks like a wobble SW. Not that it matters at this point but any further south and it'll be tapping into one of the deepest pools of OHC in the basin.
I think this would actually be bad timing for an ERC. If anything, you want it close enough to landfall that it can’t rebound from its peak. A cycle now would just expand the wind field and effectively give Melissa 24 hours to potentially RI again. Note how the 06z HAFS both intensify upon final approach.
I think I can speak for everyone when I say I’d rather have my Christmas tree and all the presents catch fire than watch @ORH_wxman chime in a tracking thread with “we need major changes”.
I can’t do this again. We just started going from drought to active, and the storms are already deamplifying and cutting. I’ll leave my family. I’ll sell my house and live with the moose at Fort Kent. I won’t do another sub 20” winter that people pretend isn’t a rat because January was -1.1°. I just can’t do it.
The last dropsonde found surface winds of 111kt with 128kt at 925mb in the northern section of the eyewall, so while potentially a little high, the NHC is in the ballpark. We’ll see what the next recon flight finds.