Hurricane Kristy reaches Category 5 intensity
1-minute Mesoscale Domain Sector GOES-18 (GOES-West) Visible and Infrared imagery of Hurricane Kristy in the East Pacific Ocean on 23 October (above) highlighted a well-defined eye, with GLM-indicated lightning activity increasing within the inner eyewall. Cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures in the -80s C (shades of violet to purple) were apparent at times. Kristy reached Category 4 intensity as of the 2100 UTC advisory from NHC.A closer view of GOES-18 Visible images (below) revealed low-altitude mesovortices within the eye.
Hurricane Kristy was moving through an environment characterized by low values of deep-layer wind shear, as seen in an analysis from the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones site (below) — a factor which favored its rapid intensification.On 24 October, 1-minute GOES-18 Visible and Infrared imagery (above) again displayed a well-defined eye, with GLM-indicated lightning activity increasing within the inner eyewall — and cloud-top infrared brightness temperatures in the -80s C (shades of violet to purple) were apparent at times. Kristy continued to further intensify, becoming a Category 5 hurricane as of the 2100 UTC advisory from NHC.
In a closer view of GOES-18 Visible images (below), distinct low-altitude mesovortices were once again seen within the eye.
Earlier in the morning, when Kristy was still a Category 4 hurricane, a Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) image at 1401 UTC (below) indicated that a derived maximum wind speed of 130 knots was present in the NE quadrant of the eyewall (source).