[steveegg]

On my way off the thread, I found a new Data Vortex Message from NOAA3 (looks like the 2 NOAA planes are pairing up) - this eye fix is at 12:46 pm -

353 
URNT12 KNHC 231805Z
VORTEX DATA MESSAGE
A. 23/1746Z
B. 27 DEG 45 MIN N
   92 DEG 15 MIN W
C. 700 MB 2489 MA
D. NA
E. NA
F. 146 DEG 129 KT
G. 051 DEG 19 NM
H. 930 MB
I. 12 C/ 3064 M
J. 19 C/ 3041 M
K. 14 C/ NA
L. OPEN SE
M. C20
N. 12345/7
O. 1/1 NM
P. NOAA3 2318A RITA OB 04
   MAX FL WIND 129 KT NE QUAD 1741Z
   EYE OPEN NE THRU SE

Items of note (I hesitate to call this a comparison between this and NOAA2's noon eye fix) -

- Movement 7 degrees north, 7 degrees west
- Eye 20 nm in diameter (NOAA2 found it at 30)
- Max flight-level wind at 129 knots in the NE quad (NOAA2 came in from almost due east and found 124-knot winds)

[WxMan2000]

Note that the flight level winds are higher than they were this morning, when the official intensity was 140 mph. Makes no sense that they've dropped the intensity 15 mph since then.