Question, when/if you have a moment.......as one who folows these hurrican thread casually over the years, I don't believe I've seen the term "Eyewall replacement cycle" until this year. Does this represent some new thing into how the storms behave..a more cyclic nature of the ebb/flow of their ctrenght?
it is a common thing with really strong storms. the eye wall gets tighter and tighter (smaller) and at certain point it becomes so small it can not handle the air that needs to be sent aloft at that point a new (larger) eye wall forms and within this new eye wall is the old eye wall, the old eye wall gives way to the new eye wall but the process weaken the hurricane for a bit until the replacement cycle is complete. then the hurricane quickly regain strenght until then next eye wall replacement cycle (if any) occurs.