when we evacuate folks they say is it the wind, the speed, the water, we don t know which event it s going to be but when a major storm comes one of those is going to happen if not all. heed our advice. if we say go, go. and as janice pointed out and local officials tell me, here they re comparing this to matthew three years ago. it left people without power, people lost lives and there were billions of dollars of damage. at some point trouble is going to come here and people are going to have to be vigilant. we re heading down to janice dean to check in on the latest of the storm. we ll get a new advisory at 8 a.m. and that there give us the coordinates. look at the satellite presentation. that s as perfect as you can get. the wide eye wur four quadrants filling out with the higher cloud tops. that s as perfect as a hurricane
storm on all fronts for you. let s first go to our meteorologist, michelle grossman. okay. it is a category 5. what does that mean? how dangerous is it? put it in perspective for us. alex, this is a dangerous and dire and scary situation for the northwestern bahamas right now. now making almost as land fall. winds of 170 miles per hours. gusting near 200 miles per hour. hoping and praying that residents and tourists have taken shelter there. le let s look at this. you note how powerful this is. look at this eye. it is perfect. textbook perfect. looking at the cloud tops, the thunderstorms or other thunderstorms bearing down on the islands. they re going to have a rough go over the next 46 hours. we re looking at a dangerous situation. here s the location right. affecting it right now. 180 miles per hour winds. gusting higher. there was only one other
our chief meteorologist rick reichmuth tracking the storm. t weaken a storm is dry air gets in there. that does happen and it s hard to forecast. that could be one thing. if that did happen, it might inhibit some of the strengthening. the official forecast at the national hurricane center center right now is for that category four. the other thing that could happen is fluctuation in that strength that happens once you get the strong storms. they go through eye wall replacement cycles and that can make the sustained wind fluctuate 20 to 30 miles an hour. we could be on one of the down sides when it makes landfall. this is the center of the storm. this is the visible satellite. this is exactly what the sat looks looks down on the earth and sees. you can see the darker red colors. they re the colder cloud tops and ends up spinning up this kind of an image for us. the center looking strong. earlier today there were two kind of eyes with it.
i want to go to tom who joins us with the very latest. anderson, the latest advisory keeps it as a powerful cat dweg three, but the pressure has dropped, which means it is getting stronger. they go on to say that it is getting better organized. and something we rarely do but should do more is explain this infrared imagery. when you look at imagery like this, those bright colors, those are the colder and higher cloud tops. for the last several loops we have been watching most of that on the northern and northeast western frank. it s not out of the realm of possibilities that this category three, which is only ten miles away from category four to reach that before land fall. when we talk about this storm, this is significant because this in history now will be the strongest hurricane to ever make
the pressure has dropped, which means it s getting stronger. they go on to say, the national hurricane center, that it s getting better organized. and something we rarely do but should do more is explain this infrared imagery. when you look at a satellite imagery leek this, those bright colors, those purple colors, anderson, those are the colder and higher cloud tops. and for the last several loops we ve been watching most of that on the northern and northwestern flank. we ve been waiting for it to complete the circle. it has now done this. so it s not out of the realm of possibilities that this category 3, which is only ten miles away, ten miles per hour away from category 4, to reach that before landfall. when we talk about the storm, this is significant because this in history now will be the strongest hurricane to ever make landfall within 40 miles of panama city. when we look at the warnings, they extend well inland. so the wind speed is going to continue to be contained with th