Woke up to Category 5 Melissa, 160 mph/913 mb. NHC pulled the trigger overnight. Some things to say: - Melissa is now the strongest storm of the season surpassing Erin (160 mph/915 mb). - This is only the second season on record to feature more than two Category 5 hurricanes, the other one being 2005. - Satellite estimations went absolutely off the rails last night, estimating Melissa as a 170 kt tropical cyclone with the pressure in 800s territory. This huge difference between satellite and recon is because said estimations are based (among other things) cloud temperatures. Being october, the troposphere it's cooler, hence it's easier to achieve colder tops. These estimates generally work well but sometimes do not. I've seen this mismatch with Eta 2020 as well.







