Re: "Hurricane Gusts" Watts Up With That
Posted by
Tim_NC on 9/5/2010, 12:09 pm
I can't speak to 'wind reduction from flight level' because that's not my thing, but I do agree with your points about wind.
It's clearly safe to say Earl was a "fully maxed out tropical storm" when arriving in Canada; but to declare it a "hurricane" may be pushing it - because "hurricane" is defined solely by wind speed - and presently there seems some confusion about that. Earl had the features, size, barometric pressure, seas, etc. of a hurricane but was it?
1) For the record books it's purely technical. If any part of the storm is of sustained hurricane force, the storm goes into the books as a hurricane.
2) I think it's fair to say most of us have at some time or another had difficulty accepting the classification of this or that tropical cyclone. I recall a tropical storm a few years ago that made landfall with no winds greater than 25mph being recorded at any (Gulf) coastal station. Names have been given to some truly wretched "storms" over the years.
3) The point of #2 is that even if 99% of a storm is below a threshold, it may be 'categorized.' This may satisfy statistical record keeping but it poorly defines reality. One 50mph storm may be vastly superior to another but how does one put that in the records? Perhaps the category could have a letter following it, e.g. "TS-A", "TS-B"; or "Cat 1-A" and "Cat 1-B"; with A being "well-developed" and B being "not well-developed". "Well-developed" would need a 'definition' of its own of course; and that could be a subjective view by the NHC staff. (I don't believe it's a crime to add a little subjectivity to raw science and math.)
Whatever the case, those who are most concerned with history may link satellite photos to their textual history. Those who personally experience a storm are free to define it any way they wish; technically correct or not. (Trying to 'educate' people in the reality of weather can be as painful as it is with any other subject because people don't like their built-in realities questioned.)
Making statistics reflect reality may not be easy but that doesn't mean it should forever be ignored. Making people just accept reality itself is the most difficult chore of all.
Tim_NC
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