at 8:20 PM by Evan Hatter

Tropical Storm Matthew quickly becomes a Major Hurricane

Hurricane Matthew, the thirteenth named storm on the Atlantic basin, strengthened rapidly since it was first designated a hurricane at 2 p.m. ET Thursday afternoon and by the advisory issued just 27 hours later, it was upgraded to a category 4 major hurricane.

My my, look at that eye. (NHC)
My my, look at that eye. (NHC)

Looks like we have a hub cloud at the end which would indicate an eye-wall replacement has begun with #Matthew. pic.twitter.com/5mSbdC6Iee

— Brad Panovich (@wxbrad) September 30, 2016

Matthew is now clearly the strongest storm to form in the Atlantic basin so far this year and the strongest hurricane to impact the Caribbean Islands in a good while, here are the latest statistics (as of the 8 p.m. ET Friday advisory):

  • Sustained winds of 145 mph
  • Minimum pressure of 945 millibars.
  • Moving WSW at 9 mph
Currently, the extent of Matthew's hurricane and tropical storm force winds. (NHC)
Currently, the extent of Matthew’s hurricane and tropical storm force winds as well as tropical advisories. (NHC)

Matthew had to overcome wind shear in this part of the world in order to develop, which took some time as just yesterday Matthew was still just a tropical storm trying to get organized. The storm was able to take advantage of very warm sea surface temperatures in the Caribbean Sea. That really allowed Matthew to grow into an absolute monster as it turns towards a more northwesterly track.

The NHC's latest track on Matthew. (NHC)
The NHC’s latest track on Matthew. (NHC)

This latest track puts many Caribbean Islands in the path of this very dangerous storm, including major impacts to the Island of Jamaica and possibly the eastern side of Cuba. As we head towards early next week, Matthew lose a bit of strength (below major hurricane status) as it crosses Cuba before coming out with it’s sights set on the Bahamas. However, the NHC has said that their forecasts maybe a bit on the conservative side, so I wouldn’t rule out a major hurricane impact on the Bahamas quite yet.

Depending on where the cutoff low over our area right now moves, so goes Hurricane Matthew. If the low moves far east enough it could steer Matthew away from the U.S. East Coast and that’s something meteorologists are going to be watching very closely in the days to come.