Eye

[tomboudreau]

I just looked at the satellite image off of the NHC site, and the eye looks HUGE! In time, when the eye begins to become smaller again, wouldn't that mean Isabelle would become stronger from the 160 MPH winds that she is currently at? How strong could that make the winds. Are we looking at possible 180 or 185 if this happens. Don't the eyes become smaller as they become strong also? Just curious. I could be way out to sea on this as well. Thanks for the help,

[Stormsfury]

I just looked at the satellite image off of the NHC site, and the eye looks HUGE! In time, when the eye begins to become smaller again, wouldn't that mean Isabelle would become stronger from the 160 MPH winds that she is currently at? How strong could that make the winds. Are we looking at possible 180 or 185 if this happens. Don't the eyes become smaller as they become strong also? Just curious. I could be way out to sea on this as well. Thanks for the help,

In some cases yes... Hurricane Gilbert's eye was 6 NM at one point with it's 185 MPH sustained winds. Isabel was probably stronger before it was in RECON range a couple of days ago. But one thing that leads me to believe that Isabel's case is different are those mutliple vorticities imbedded in the eye. I simply don't know what kind of effect those are having on added windspeed because frankly, I've never seen this happen before.

I also noted the last vortex fix also that the surface eye position apparently looked displaced 4 NM east which is an indication how violent and pronounced the wobble is within the eye or just a little hint of a slanted hurricane.

SF