let's go to tom sater. walk me through the new forecast and what does it tell us about what the storm is doing now? >> in the latest advisory, when a pressure drops, the storm gets stronger and once that pressure drops, the winds pick up. we just seen a 20 milibar drop. that's the greatest drop of pressure between one advisory and the next since the birth of dorian. at this time last night, it was a category one expecting at 11:00 p.m. last night to become a two and did. last night it was a three and we're all most at cat four now. that pressure dropped, increased winds to 125 miles per hour. that's only five miles per hour away from category four status and one way to know this before it occurs is we've all seen radar and you see a well-defined eye but an eye on a satellite imagery, you know that motor is firing on all cylinders. see the white color? this is breathing and again, that fuel line really soaking up some of the extremely warm water that will only get warmer. a different change today, the hurric

let's go right back to tom sater. give us the latest on that. >> not a big surprise, john. at the 8:00 p.m. advisory that we saw the greatest drop in pressure from any advisory to the next. a 20 millibar drop. when that pressure drops significantly, it takes a while for the winds to pick up. it's getting stronger. yesterday at this hour, it was a category one. in a 24-hour period, we have now jumped from a category one hurricane to a category four. this is amazing. could it get to a five? yes, it can, and most likely will now. when you look at a well-defined eye like this, we're still over 500 miles away from let's say the coast of florida, we've got a lot more warmer water to contend with. we go from the mid 80s to the upper 80s, and that's significant. when you look at this track, i want to point this out. here we are, currently at a category four. notice how it goes to three, then back to four. this is going to be a new track in two hours. what they're showing us here is the older track, but what is currently. at about 11:00 p.m., we're going to get a new track from the

you know, the new forecast for hurricane dorian is coming in right now, and tom sater is in the cnn weatherenter. tom, what do you have? >> well, i tell you what, 24 hours ago, laura, as mentioned at the top of the hour, it was a category 1. it's a category 4. but just since 8:00, the pressure has dropped even more. when that happens, the winds kick up. so now we've got winds at 140. that's up 10 miles an hour in the last -- since the last advisory. to get to a category 5, it would have to get up to 157. i mean we don't want that. we'd have to nuke it. we don't want to do that. i jest, but in is no laughing matter when it comes still to the possibilities of what is ahead. and what is ahead -- i'm trying to advance these graphics -- is we're watching the curve still taking its way toward the north, but it seems to be a tad earlier. we're still not out of the woods with this yet because it's extremely close. as we look at the track now from the national hurricane center, it puts on the brakes even more. category 4 crossing freeport. we're close to cape canaveral as a 3, but now it skims up th

. >>> want to bring in cnn meteorologist tom sater who has a closer look at the latest track.us a sense how much time people have in puerto rico and the u.s. virgin islands to stil storm that came out of nowhere and it keeps on going. like the little train that could. it has been defying an atmosphere extremely dry, should have died the system out, it is defying some computer models but it made its way across bash aid yos and martinique and downed power lines and flooding and we have until tomorrow evening when it makes the closest approach to puerto rico. the storm now, winds at 50 miles per hour. the tropical storm force winds extend outward at 50 miles per hour and closest approach to san juan i think san juan could be 93 miles away. it is trying to wobble a little bit and that is a concern. and peak, that is the important part, that is the hurricane watch for puerto rico and that coast of dominican republic but it is the track that means everything. if this threads the needle and stays over warmer waters, it is got a better chance to develop and strengthen. if it makes its

let's go to our meteorologist tom sater at the cnn weather center. so tom, there is a new forecast just out. what does it show? >> well we have a little change in the track now. obviously what we're going to see, wolf, in the next couple of days here, is what was a small size storm is going to visually look a lot larger and that is normal. we're seeing thunderstorms really develop around the center in the eye so this engine is firing now on all cylinders. when you look at color of white on the infrared it is now circular around that core. that means this thing is really churning. these tropical systems, their only job in life is to take warm air and take it to the north so anything in its way is going to block it from moving northward. our watches in the bahamas and in many -- in many cases are warnings and by morning will have hurricane watches on the coast of florida. high pressure to the north has been blocking the systems. remember, they want the path of least resistance to the north. and therefore we've been expecting this landfall in florida. bu

tom sater is outfront live in the weather center. tom, if dorian hits florida on the course that it is, third major hurricane in as many years to hit the peninsula there. tell wlaus we are rerng. >> yeah, i mean we just had michael last year and irma the year before. i expect this to be a category 2 late tonight or overnight. it's small in size but should grow in the days ahead. puerto rico is getting a lot heavier rain today with thunderstorms than they did yesterday when the center was a lot closer. as we take it though in the future, what has changed for our viewers from yesterday, we had it -- the national hurricane center had it making landfall at category 3. increased that to a 4. that's not a surprise because yesterday we had a category 3 well out into the waters. so that's plenty of time for it to really surge in the warmer waters going from the mid-80s to the upper 80s. but the biggest thing here and reed mentioned it, this is a cone of uncertainty and it's titled that for a reign. the european model put on the brakes like he

. >> a near miss indeed, tom sater thanks very much pch omar jimenez outfront live in puerto rico tonight. omar i know it's getting dark but folks still taking precautions. >> look, jim, at this point the worst of it does seem to be over at least for the island of puerto rico. but as far as the mindset goes for the people here, they were preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. now there are many people concerned about the amount of rainfall that would come through. we are seeing rain at this hour. and concern the rain would contribute to any sort of flooding impacts, especially in the mountainous portions of the island. that remains to be seen. in large part the storm moved east, mainly over the virgin islands was where we saw the huge impacts come, at least from the wind earlier today. we did hear from the governor of the u.s. virgin islands, saying the roads seem to be okay but they are dealing with a scattering of power outages at the moment. but that was a major concern going into this here on the island of puerto rico, especially given how long it took things to get back --

let's go to tom sater. walk me through the new forecast and what does it tell us

i want to go straight to cnn meteorologist tom sater now, the national weather service director in san juan says that dorian's winds don't compare to maria in 2017 but it is still a really powerful storm. >> it is still a hurricane, there is no doubt, and as we mentioned, i know they have been preparing for the worst, and hoping for the best, the hoping part is working, and a lot dana, has happened in the last 24 hours. and yesterday, air force reconnaissance had a tough time even finding the center, and once we found it, it was farther to the north. so once you have a center found, then you base the track on that, and so the track has moved, away pretty much from what was a couple of days ago, hispaniola, hoping the mountains would break it down. and then towards the mona pass in between puerto rico and the dominican republic and kept moving to the east. then we thought the landfall would be on puerto rico, an hour and a half ago, the center was over saint thomas. currently, the center is 60 miles from san juan. they will not take a direct hit. but even better news, when we look at th