Kingarabian wrote:I believe there's a strong case for Hector to be upgraded to Cat.5 in the offseason. Norman is at or just borderline Cat.5 right now.
I agree. Hector's presentation at the end of his time in the EPAC, and the beginning of his time in the CPAC was truly fantastic. That annular structure was top notch, and to me, the recon data supports a bump to 140kts. I know the highest unflagged SFMR was 137kts, but there was a flagged 149kts, as well as a flagged 153kts. I'd personally use those to bump the final peak intensity to 140kts.
If Hector gets the bump up and Norman reaches Cat 5 later today, that would put us at 3 total so far. In Pacific seasons like this, quite frequently the strongest storm of the season doesn't come along until October (Kenna, Rick, Patricia). Eric Blake mentioned the possibility of getting to the Greek alphabet on Twitter, so could this be the Pacific's 2005 and we'll get a 4th Cat 5 in October that is the strongest of the season?
Interesting to note, in 2005 the first Cat 5 of the season was Emily, and operationally she was only recognized as a Cat 4, just like Hector is currently.
Also, that year all the Cat 5 storms had female names. So far, all the Cat 5 or potential Cat 5 storms have had male names. Could Vicente, Xavier, or Zeke be #4?