The recon vortex message was kinda incomplete, but here's what I think is going on based off of what they've sent back...

1) Eyewall replacement cycle (ERC) is not yet complete. That's a CO for concentric in the eye character bullet, not a C0 for circular (with no radius info).

2) Accordingly, the maximum surface winds aren't responding to that 920mb pressure. Note that the 918mb pressure referenced elsewhere is also an extrapolated value and comes from the aircraft and the SFMR instrument.

3) The ERC is *almost* done given the small temperature differential between inside and outside the eye. This suggests that it is akin to sampling inside of the larger eye but separated by the remnants of the inner eyewall.

4) Assuming this ERC completes soon, it will shortly be over the warm eddy in the central Caribbean, as seen via http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/phod/dataphod1/work/HHP/NEW/2007228ca.jpg. This spells trouble for the nighttime hours, particularly when coupled with the diurnal convective maximum. The only potentially negative factor would be flow over Hispaniola causing dry air intrusion into the storm, but I feel that Dean is far enough away from it plus has significant other inflow channels for this to not be a factor.

Simply put, I feel that once the ERC cycle completes within the next hour or two, it will be just a matter of time before Dean becomes a category 5 hurricane.