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Concentric eyewalls are forming. Double wind maxima in last recon pass. That is the likely reason for the more ragged presentation of Rita. Bad news is that she will have plenty of time to re-strengthen before landfall.
well, she is getting much better looking on sat.....she was shaped like an oval first sat pic back...now almost perfectly symmetrical again...CDO is expanding again
deltadog03 wrote:well, she is getting much better looking on sat.....she was shaped like an oval first sat pic back...now almost perfectly symmetrical again...CDO is expanding again
Agreed and think that is evidence its not being squashed by a strong ridge on any side.
yeah, the ridge is still clearly there...its weaking..but, remember how the 00z gfs and the 00zukmet went NW at the begining...well its not...so busted...but, its moving around 285 maybe
superfly wrote:Tops are warmer, CDO smaller in size.
Still 898mb amazing.
Rita has been 898 from early this evening, its too bad we didn't have any recon for much of the evening b/c its possible she bottomed out lower than 898
It's much less convincing on the western side, on IR. It was equally strong (and also a much larger core) all around, several hours back. It's still a 902 cat 5 but I think its going to become a 4 soon if that trend continues. The NHC said therr would be fluctuations in the next 24 hrs and it seems this is one of them.