interaction with the Greater Antilles was the only factor impeding further development. After Iris reached winds of 85 mph (140 km/h) early on October 7, its intensity remained steady for about 24 hours. During that time, the satellite appearance became slightly ragged as its outflow became restricted, possibly due to an upper-level low. By late on October 7, the area of hurricane force winds associated with Iris extended only 25 mi (35 km) from its 16 mi (22 km) wide eye. Early on October 8, after turning west-southwestward away from the Greater Antilles, Iris began strengthening again, with warm waters and an absence of significant wind shear and the NHC predicted peak winds of 105 mph (165 km/h) before the storm would hit Belize. However, Iris instead began to rapidly intensify within the favorable conditions, going from 95 mph (150 km/h) to 140 mph (225 km/h) in a 12-hour period on October 8, making Iris a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson scale; in the same duration, the minimum central pressure dropped 38 mbar (1.12 inHg). While intensifying, the hurricane developed concentric eyewalls, with an innermost eye having a diameter of 7 mi (11 km). For comparison, the smallest known eye diameter on record for an Atlantic hurricane was about 3 mi (5 km), during Hurricane Wilma in 2005. With such a small eye, a Hurricane Hunters flight could not deploy a dropsonde into the center of Iris, and shortly after the flight, the innermost eye collapsed as the core paralleled the Honduras coastline just offshore. This resulted in a temporary and slight weakening during an eyewall replacement cycle, but within a few hours Iris re-intensified to attain peak winds of 145 mph (230 km/h) just off Belize. At 02:00 UTC on October 9, it made landfall at peak intensity in Monkey River Town in the southern portion of Belize. Operationally, it was assessed as having made landfall with winds of 150 mph (240 km/h), though for an unknown reason this was lowered in post-analysis. Initially, Hurricane Iris was forecast to remain a tropical cyclone while crossing Central America and to re-intensify in the eastern Pacific Ocean; had it done so, it would have retained the name Iris. Instead, the hurricane rapidly weakened after moving into the mountainous terrain of Guatemala, and within six hours of landfall, the hurricane weakened to a tropical storm. Late on October 9, within sixteen