SouthernWx wrote:Opal was a very large, sprawling hurricane in size.....even while only a cat-1. TS Bonnie is extremely small, with a very tight LLC...more reminiscent of how hurricane Andrew (1992) or Iris (2001) were in their formative stages.
If Bonnie were to rapidly intensify to a major hurricane (which is IMO unlikely), it would be much closer in size to hurricane 1975's Eloise as compared to Opal (both were landfalling major Fla panhandle hurricanes).
If I remember right, Opal enveloped more area but had a very tight core. When passing south and southeast of New Orleans (at it's peak), the diameter of the eye was 8 to 10 NM wide.