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Hurricane Matthew Steadily Intensifying, Likely to be a Category 4 Storm for Florida | Dr. Jeff Masters' WunderBlog

 Bahamas

Hurricane Matthew as seen from 248-nm range Miami radar (with clutter turned off) at 8:31 am EDT Thursday, October 6, 2016. Matthew's eye was just east of Andros Island in the Bahamas, and the northern eyewall was beginning to affect Nassau, on New Providence Island. Image: Weather Underground

Powerful Category 3 Hurricane Matthew has steadily intensified over the warm waters of The Bahamas, and is poised to become a Category 4 hurricane this afternoon...Matthew’s pressure was 961 mb at 11 pm EDT Wednesday, and the 24 mb pressure fall in nine hours that has occurred since then will likely lead to a further increase in Matthew’s winds, by about 10 - 15 mph, by this afternoon. This would make Matthew a 135 - 140 mph Category 4 storm as it bears down on Florida...

The bottom line: Matthew is likely to be a major Category 4 hurricane by this afternoon, and will likely be at Category 3 or 4 strength when it affects the east coast of Florida on Friday. Matthew is not likely to become a Category 5 storm