I had insomnia, called my brother who was on night shift, and stayed up to read the 5am discussion.

Was surprised to see that 945mb reading. So just as soon as the eyewall was closed, this thing started to take off.

The discussion had good reasoning for going to Cat 3 and with 945mb it is hard to imagine the winds not catching up.

Do you think there was an ERC during the recent intensification, or is it just that the eye is clearing out now that the eyewall is closed, and that is why it appears larger?

Movement seems straight W now. No big wobbles like before so maybe intensification is done for now.

Next recon ought to report prior to the 11am and then the 3 hour fixes will have started. So if this thing keeps cooking I guess we'll be seeing something very impressive by then. It is hard to know how far to guess on intensity because anything seems possible. I guess I could say that when I wake up tomorrow and looked at the 11am (and at this point I don't know how I'm going to be able to get up much earlier than that!), would I even be surprised to see maybe 925mb? That seems outlandish, but with this thing finally in position to intensify as much as it is capable of, who knows.