The most recent recon plane to investigate Dean found a pressure of 924 mb — down just 2 mb from the wee hours of this morning — and top flight-level winds of 161 mph, down from 167 mph this morning. (Multiply by 0.9 for the approximate top surface winds.) As a result, the NHC kept Dean at 150 mph as of the 2:00 PM advisory. So it appears this storm is in no huge hurry to begin rapidly intensifying, my earlier post notwithstanding.

That said, he’s looking better and better organized on the satellite loop, so I still think it’s only a matter of time before he achieves Cat. 5 status:

The next recon mission is set for 8:00 PM EDT. And my break is almost over. Back to the seminar…