from Dr Jeff Masters: Hurricane Dean is intensifying. The latest Hurricane Hunter data and satellite intensity estimates both show an intensifying storm, and the 3:54pm EDT eye report showed a 6 mb pressure drop in less than two hours, which is a big fall. The pressure now stands at 918 mb, which is the lowest pressure Dean has attained thus far. The storm is over waters with very high heat content, and is under light wind shear, so continued intensification is probable. Landfall is expected near Chetumal, Mexico, just after midnight local time. Dean will be a tremendously destructive storm for southern Mexico. Dean is powerful enough to be able to survive the crossing of the Yucatan as a hurricane, and hurricane advisories have been posted for cities on the western coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. The only hurricanes on record that survived crossing this portion of the Yucatan and maintaining hurricane intensity were Hurricane Roxanne of 1995, which hit just south of Cozumel as a Category 3, and emerged near Campeche as a Category 1; and Hurricane Janet of 1955, which hit near Chetumal as a Category 5 storm, then weakened to a Category 2 storm when it popped out into the Gulf of Mexico south of Campeche. We can expect Dean will carve out a path of great destruction all the way across the Yucatan Peninsula, then potentially re-intensify before hitting Mexico again along the Gulf Coast in the Bay of Campeche.
AmbergrisCaye.com 
![[Linked Image]](http://ambergriscaye.com/art/dean-8-20-07l.gif)
