UPDATE: Chris now a hurricane.
From the National Hurricane Center:
At 500 PM EDT (2100 UTC), the center of Hurricane Chris was located
near latitude 33.7 North, longitude 72.4 West. Chris is moving
toward the northeast near 10 mph (17 km/h). A continued
northeastward motion accompanied by a steady increase in forward
speed is expected through Thursday night.Reports from an Air Force Reserve hurricane hunter aircraft indicate
that maximum sustained winds have increased to near 85 mph (140
km/h) with higher gusts. Some additional strengthening is forecast
tonight and Wednesday. Chris is forecast to begin weakening by
Thursday, and become a strong post-tropical cyclone by Thursday
night or early Friday.Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 15 miles (30 km) from the
center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 90 miles
(150 km).The minimum central pressure recently measured by the reconnaissance
aircraft was 980 mb (28.94 inches).
Tropical Storm Chris is probably now a Hurricane. Thankfully, Tropical Storm (Hurricane) Chris is now churning through the Atlantic and away from the United States.
Chris looks healthy. pic.twitter.com/n4yAP7WH2U
— Nick Lilja (@NickLilja) July 10, 2018
The Storm went through a mild case of rapid intensification. Gaining 15kts of wind speed during the last seven hours. And the pressure dropped from 993mb to 980mb during the last five hours.
At least, that is according to the Hurricane Hunters raw data being returned.
(Hurricane) #Chris has undergone rapid intensification. According to MIMIC, we just observed around a 15kt increase in winds in just 7 hours. Estimated winds at 75kt, which is close to what aircraft has measured via dropsondes. pic.twitter.com/4s9EzpzeyQ
— Michael Ventrice (@MJVentrice) July 10, 2018
The next official update on Chris is coming in about 20 minutes. The National Hurricane Center path continues to take Chris out to sea – away from the United States.
