Meteorologist Derek Beasley

2PM UPDATE: Winds have increased to 175 mph with a pressure of 906 mb. This makes it the most powerful tropical cyclone of the year worldwide ahead of Super Typhoon Ragasa, Hurricane Erin and Hurricane Humberto.

The AF and NOAA Hurricane Hunters don't get enough credit for what they do.

On this morning's mission, the plane made two passes into the eyewall and had to abort the mission because the turbulence was so bad. It had to be REALLY bad for them to do this.

That should give you an idea of how powerful is.