Hurricane Matthew is on a path that parallels the coast of Florida, with the center remaining just offshore. GOES-13 Visible imagery from a 1-hour time period this morning, above, shows the continued development of convection around the eyewall and the motion of convective bands inland. GOES-13 Visible images with hourly surface winds and wind gusts (in knots) are shown below. The highest wind gust recorded along the central Florida coast was 107 mph (NWS Melbourne PNS).

A 24-hour animation of morphed Microwave imagery (from this site), below, suggests that an eyewall replacement cycle has completed: the very small eye present at storm’s center at the start of the animation has been replaced by a larger-diameter eye at the end of the animation. Storm strength typically drops during eyewall replacements. Note also that the microwave data shows that the strongest convection remained offshore.

Infrared imagery from GOES-13, below, also shows the coldest cloud tops to the east of the eye (indicated by the arrow in the image).

A longer animation of GOES-13 Infrared Window (10.7 um) images with hourly surface winds and wind gusts (in knots) is shown below (MP4 | animated GIF).

A toggle between Suomi NPP VIIRS Visible (0.64 um) and Infrared Window (11.45 um) images at 1751 UTC is shown below; Matthew was a Category 3 hurricane at that time.

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Hurricane Matthew moved through the Bahamas overnight, slowly organizing and strengthening to Category 4 intensity after its interaction with the high terrain of the Greater Antilles (Note that Day/Night Band Imagery from overnight on 6 October — from this Blog Post — shows that city lights are back on in Port-au-Prince Haiti as recovery proceeds in that country). The three images above show the evolution of the storm from 0345 UTC to 1145 UTC on 6 October. A warm eye is present, but it is not a cloud-free eye.

The GOES-13 satellite continued to be in Rapid Scan Operations (RSO) mode, providing images as frequently as every 5-7 minutes. An animation of Infrared Window (10.7 µm) imagery is shown below (MP4 | animated GIF). Nassau, Bahamas (station identifier MYNN) experienced a wind gust of 74 knots at 13 UTC.

A higher-resolution view of the eye was provided by a Suomi NPP VIIRS Infrared Window (11.45 µm) image at 0645 UTC, below.

GOES-13 Visible Imagery from early in the morning on 6 October, below (MP4 | animated GIF), confirms the diagnosis of a cloudy eye. The center of the storm is moving northwestward between Andros Island to the west and New Providence Island to the east (Nassau, the capitol of the Bahamas, is on New Providence Island).

Matthew is forecast to reach the coast of Florida within 24 hours. For the latest information, consult the website of the National Hurricane Center. Additional information is available here.

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The animation of Matthew, above, from morphed microwave imagery (from this site), shows the toll that interaction with the high terrain of Hispaniola and eastern Cuba has had on the storm (causing it to be downgraded from Category 4 to Category 3 intensity). The formerly distinct eye had eroded, although eye re-formation occurs at the end of the animation. Once again, a comparison of microwave vs infrared imagery revealed that the well-defined eye structure was much more apparent using microwave data. Strengthening/Re-organization of Matthew in the near term will be governed by Sea Surface Temperatures (that are warm) and wind shear (shown below, from this site, that is weak).

Total Precipitable Water fields (from this site, using data from here), below, show abundant moisture surrounding Matthew at its present position. There is dry air over the eastern United States landmass, however.

During the morning and afternoon hours, the satellite presentation of Matthew began to slowly improve on GOES-13 Visible (0.63 µm) and Infrared Window (10.7 µm) imagery, below (MP4 | animated GIF), with well-defined convective bursts seen later in the day. Note: the noise seen on the 1645 UTC images was due to solar RFI.

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Hurricane Matthew has made landfall in western Haiti. The rocking animation (click here for a straight animation) above shows the cloud-filled eye of the storm crossing the Tiburon Peninsula. The storm’s center is forecast to remain largely over water as it moves through the Windward Passage between Cuba and Hispaniola.

A closer look using a 2-panel comparison of GOES-13 Visible (0.63  µm) and Infrared Window (10.7 µm) images, below, shows the deteriorating satellite presentation following interaction with the topography of the islands. The GOES-13 satellite was in Rapid Scan Operations (RSO) mode, providing images as frequently as every 5-7 minutes.

NOAA-18 overflew the region around 1130 UTC while the eye was on land, and the toggle below shows Visible (0.64 µm) and Infrared Window Channel (10.8 µm) imagery from 1130 UTC. The cloud-filled eye is distinct in the infrared image at that time, but a sequence of POES AVHRR Infrared (12.0 µm) images showed the rapid deterioration shortly after landfall (as was seen in the GOES-13 images above).

A toggle between 1215 UTC GOES-13 Infrared Window (10.7 µm) and 1217 UTC DMSP-18 SSMIS Microwave (85 GHz) images from the CIMSS Tropical Cyclones site, below, revealed that a well-defined eye was still evident in the microwave data.

Aqua overflew Matthew shortly after 1800 UTC on 4 October, and the toggle below shows the 1-km visible (0.65 µm) and the 1-km ‘Cirrus Channel’ (1.38 µm). The Cirrus Channel detects radiation at a wavelength where very strong absorption by water vapor is occurring; only high clouds are detected with this channel, and the toggle between the Cirrus Channel and the Visible nicely outlines the cirrus canopy of the storm. The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) on GOES-R also includes a Cirrus Channel.

Meanwhile, to the northeast of Matthew, in the tropical Atlantic, Tropical Storm Nicole has formed. The animation of visible imagery from GOES-13, below, shows a sheared storm; the low-level circulation is west of the deepest convection. It’s unlikely that Nicole will intensify much under such sheared conditions. Cirrus outflow from Matthew is evident at the south and west of Nicole.

ASCAT on METOP-A sampled both storms in its morning overpass over the western Atlantic, as shown below. The maximum scatterometer-derived wind speeds were 60 knots with Matthew and 40 knots for Julia.

Late in the day on 04 October, Category 4 Hurricane Mathew made a second landfall along the far eastern tip of Cuba. As seen in the image toggle below, in spite of a ragged appearance on GOES-13  Infrared Window (10.7 µm) imagery, a distinct eye was still seen using DMSP-18 SSMIS Microwave (85 GHz) data.

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