There is a slight bit of good news in there. A 948mb storm tends not to hide a ridiculous amount of strengthening so maybe it'll drop back down to a 3 in the shallow waters around Florida. I worked late, so I'm too tired to look up the SSTs.

I remember 2005 though. 2005 was, unfortunately, one of the worst years ever for low-barometer storms. I remember watching storm after stop after storm, dropping to 900 (Katrina and Rita)

But then Wilma showed up and dropped to 870 or 880 MB or something. With Wilma, they supported 185mph/300km/hr winds. In the countries that got hit when she was at her strongest, people had the paint sandblasted off their cars.

Wow, it's been almost two decades since we all lived on the site, watching storm after storm pound the GoM and East Coast. It was almost like a malevolent beast was in control of the weather.