Air Force Reserve Hurricane Hunter aircraft measured flight-level winds of 154 knots and confirmed a central pressure of 917 mb inside Melissa’s eye — signs of an extremely powerful storm. The hurricane’s eye is just 10 nautical miles wide and surrounded by cloud tops colder than –86 °C, evidence of deep convection and explosive intensification. Melissa is expected to gradually turn northwest and then north before accelerating northeastward across southeastern Cuba and the Bahamas by midweek. Th