the storm s defined eye wall. the stadium effect as it s called. right there in the center, visible from space sustained winds we re told. hundreds have been on guard and preparing for the storm today people in georgia and the carolinas are now on notice. he s been tracking the storm for days. we re so close to this being a huge deal. at the same time it wasn t that bad. a difference of 50 to 100 miles is going to be huge and enormous until the impacts go. we re having 50 to 100 mile an hour winds. we have a chance of getting up to a category 5 this evening. i want to show you this bright red band. the higher the clouds go, the colder they typically are, this
forecasts you see are absolutely accurate based on what we ve seen in the storm telephoitself what are you seeing on these missions that tell you it s going to carry more water, it s wider, bigger, it s stronger? it s a number of things. includes wind speed, visual clues. the video that s been circulating with our air crew flying into the eye. that presentation, also known as a stadium effect is generated by extremely powerful storms. only seen it that pronounced in one other storm in nine years. so that very well defined eye with the swirling massive thunderstorms and clouds, with that very clear center is indicative of a very, very powerful storm. we ve seen extremely high winds at slight level. the instrument we ve used also indicated that it is an extreme storm, and very, very strong.
welcome back to the 11th hour. we want to get right to an update on hurricane irma. the life of irma starting there at the bottom right as captured on monday. these images released by noah thanks to a new satellite launch last year. the storm growing slowly, the eye becoming defined, what forecasters call the stadium effect as it becomes more distinct and precise. you see each new day arrive, the sunrises and sets. the clouds from this storm now stretch nine miles up into the sky. say nothing of what it s doing over land and sea. without further delay, we want to bring in our meteorologist bill karins. and right before we came on for this segment, i was handed this. the national weather service puts out statements as big storms like this approach and they get very serious and they
so it s not only the environment around the storm that s important, but also the ocean temperatures and the ocean temperatures ahead of irma are very, very warm. we re talking water temperatures of 87, 88 degrees fahrenheit and that just is fuel for the fire. the waters through the bahamas heading toward miami are about the warmest they ve been all year. and you talked about the size of the eye. if you could just repeat how big that eye is, and i know yesterday people were talking about how sort of perfect the eye wall was. i m wondering how it looks today. the eye continues to have that perfect what we call stadium effect to it, where it looks like you re inside a circular football stadium. right now the eye is approximately 15 miles across. it s actually getting smaller.
of 87, 88 degrees fahrenheit and that just is fuel for the fire. the waters through the bahamas heading toward miami are about the warmest they ve been all year. and you talked about the size of the eye. if you could just repeat how big that eye is, and i know yesterday people were talking about how sort of perfect the eye wall was. i m wondering how it looks today. the eye continues to have that perfect what we call stadium effect to it, where it looks like you re inside a circular football stadium. right now the eye is approximately 15 miles across. it s actually getting smaller. it s going through another one of those what we call eye wall replacement cycles where there s a double eye wall right now. that outer eye wall is forming that has a wider diameter than