Regarding the initial recon - and the drop of 13mb. I thought earlier (sat images from about 3 hours ago) it looked like it was deepening and the eyewall area looking better on sat. Even with that dry air, and not being able to completely close the eye wall, and with only a 3deg differential (could that be from the weak NW side?) it is still doing it's darndest to intensify.

OK so with 91kt in the NW quad, and 950mb, don't you expect to see Cat 3 winds in the SE quad? And if so, then do you think a Cat 3 status even with the open eyewall? A pressure of 950mb would seem to put it squarely in that category.

Was there a post just before the new thread that mentioned the SW quad recon info? I'll have to go back and look.

OK thanks Storm Hunter.

Well whether officially Cat 3 now or not, it's very close. Makes you wonder if the pressure will drop to something more typical of a Cat 4 by morning, even if the winds don't catch up right away.