What is the strongest Hurricane you've been in

[Coredesat]

Isabel was a Cat 1 while it moved through here. We actually got some winds from the northern part of the eyewall. Unfortunately, some wiseacre in one of VCU's dorms pulled a fire alarm during the storm and caused people to have to go out while winds were still around 40 MPH or so. Fortunately, everyone was okay.

[windycity]

if you live in St. Pete on the west coast, you didnt get hurricane force winds with Dennis. I doubt ts winds were recorded, so why did you feel you got cat 4 winds ? Iv seen you answer in other topics that the st. pete ,tampa area experienced hurricane force winds in both 04 and 05. this kind of thinking makes one think that theyve experienced a hurricane when they havent. i dont mean to be rude so sorry if i came across that way.

[Tampa Bay Hurricane]

if you live in St. Pete on the west coast, you didnt get hurricane force winds with Dennis. I doubt ts winds were recorded, so why did you feel you got cat 4 winds ? Iv seen you answer in other topics that the st. pete ,tampa area experienced hurricane force winds in both 04 and 05. this kind of thinking makes one think that theyve experienced a hurricane when they havent. i dont mean to be rude so sorry if i came across that way.

Correct. There were no sustained hurricane force winds recorded with Dennis in St. Pete.
Officially:
Highest Sustained Winds of 44 mph, Gusts to 58 mph (KPIE)
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pdf/TCR-AL042005_Dennis.pdf

But there were some higher unofficial gusts that might raise some eyebrows...but i cannot find those sources...

[Extremeweatherguy]

if you live in St. Pete on the west coast, you didnt get hurricane force winds with Dennis. I doubt ts winds were recorded, so why did you feel you got cat 4 winds ? Iv seen you answer in other topics that the st. pete ,tampa area experienced hurricane force winds in both 04 and 05. this kind of thinking makes one think that theyve experienced a hurricane when they havent. i dont mean to be rude so sorry if i came across that way.

Yeah, Tampa metro has not seen hurricane force winds in years. In fact, I think the strongest they've seen over the last two years was Jeanne and that only produced strong TS conditions there. They will be in for a rude awakening when they actually DO have to face a hurricane. But to say that Dennis was a Cat. 4 in Tampa is ridiculous...I mean it was barely a 3 at landfall in the panhandle, so the idea of Tampa having Cat. 4 winds (when the eye wall never even got close to them) is insane. I think we would have heard about Tampa being wiped away had it have been a 4.

[Tampa Bay Hurricane]

if you live in St. Pete on the west coast, you didnt get hurricane force winds with Dennis. I doubt ts winds were recorded, so why did you feel you got cat 4 winds ? Iv seen you answer in other topics that the st. pete ,tampa area experienced hurricane force winds in both 04 and 05. this kind of thinking makes one think that theyve experienced a hurricane when they havent. i dont mean to be rude so sorry if i came across that way.

Yeah, Tampa metro has not seen hurricane force winds in years. In fact, I think the strongest they've seen over the last two years was Jeanne and that only produced strong TS conditions there. They will be in for a rude awakening when they actually DO have to face a hurricane. But to say that Dennis was a Cat. 4 in Tampa is ridiculous...I mean it was barely a 3 at landfall in the panhandle, so the idea of Tampa having Cat. 4 winds (when the eye wall never even got close to them) is insane. I think we would have heard about Tampa being wiped away had it have been a 4.

Tampa Metro has not seen sustained hurricane force winds
in over 40 years. A hurricane in this area of category 3, 4 or
above with large size would be utterly catastrophic
due to surge potential of 25 feet and wind potential extreme
damage with the hundreds of mobile homes around here.
There are literally hundreds of homes right along the
water. A cat 3 or above would be unimaginably catastrophic.

[mike815]

oh rally glad u know better than me lol just i beilve it was a 3

[docjoe]

Sustained cat 3 in Dennis for probably 10-15 minutes with higher gusts and longer period of sustained Cat 1 and Cat 2. Upper end cat 1 with higher gusts in Ivan for hours

docjoe

[windycity]

Docjoe, not in st.pete,this was in the panhandle where these winds wre recorded. im sure thats what ya ment.

[Extremeweatherguy]

oh rally glad u know better than me lol just i beilve it was a 3

well Dennis was a 3 in the panhandle, but not in Tampa.

[JonathanBelles]

jeanne or dennis or charley or frances.. they're all melting in my brain

[docjoe]

Docjoe, not in st.pete,this was in the panhandle where these winds wre recorded. im sure thats what ya ment.

yes...i live in Santa Rosa county about 10 miles as the crow flies due north of the landfall of Dennis. The eye passed directly over my house. I did live in St Pete Beach in the past but no hurricane there.

docjoe

["Ice"]

Ivan- strong cat. 3

[Extremeweatherguy]

Ivan- strong cat. 3

though it was classified as a Cat. 3 at landfall...the strongest wind reports in Pensacola only support Cat. 1/2 wind speeds. The surge though was that of a 3.

[Extremeweatherguy]

jeanne or dennis or charley or frances.. they're all melting in my brain

looking at wind reports...it was probably Jeanne for you guys.

[Tampa Bay Hurricane]

Wilma's winds roared much LOUDER at my location than those of frances or jeanne. OFFICALLY, wilma was not as bad as jeanne, but a gust front or microburst or downburst of some sort at my location made wilma seem the worst.

by the gusts-
Wilma- THE noise was much louder and worse on my house than during any other storm: 76+ unofficial anemometer sources correlates with localized damage--> I'm thinking a microburst did this localized damaged
Jeanne- 78 mph, unofficial gusts to 80+ on st.pete beach
Frances- Low 70s mph
Dennis- About 60 mph gusts
Katrina- Squall line gusts to 48 mph (as indicated in the final report on Katrina for max gusts at tampa bay location), dammage to neighborhood trees and shrubbery, probably a severe thunderstorm in the squall
Rita- Gusts to unofficially 60 mph in a SEVERE THUNDERSTORM OUTFLOW BOUNDARY during a feederband, damage to trees and shrubbery; winds calmed down to 15-20 mph immediately following this severe storm

[JonathanBelles]

i had a wind gust of 79 at the house from wilma

[wxman57]

The poll question is somewhat vague. It's interesting that 50% of the people here claim to have been in Cat 2 or Cat 3 winds, or are you (they) saying that they were somewhere in the wind field of a Cat 2/3 hurricane? I can't think of many Cat 3 or 4 hurricanes that actually brought those winds inland. Dennis's Cat 3 winds remained offshore (See the HRD post-storm wind analysis). Wilma's winds over Florida were Cat 1 mostly, with maybe a few pockets of low-end Cat 2. Rita's winds in southwest Louisiana were mostly Cat 1. I don't think that Jeanne or Frances produced any Cat 2 winds inland over Florida. Andrew's hurricane force winds stayed on the south side of Miami, for the most part. Everyone wants to believe he/she has seen Cat 2 or 3 (or higher winds), but I doubt that many of us have, even when in a Cat 2-3-4 hurricane. That's why so many were surprised by what Wilma's Cat 1 winds did to south Florida.

As for me, I don't know. Here in Houston in Alicia (Cat 3) we got about 45-55 mph sustained winds at the most with maye some gusts to 70-80 mph. Back in 1965, I remember that we had some pretty strong winds from Betsy in south-central Louisiana, maybe hurricane force, possibly not. Same from Hilda in 1964. Cat 3 Carmen in 1974 that went over Lafayette produced only TS force winds that far inland. So even going through the center/eye of two Cat 3 hurricanes, I doubt that I have seen sustained hurricane force winds. Can't verify that for sure, as I was only 7-8 years old in 1964-1965.

[Ixolib]

...I was only 7-8 years old in 1964-1965.

Me too!! Man-o-man, time sure does fly. Where did all those years go??!! And since Katrina, I feel like I've aged another 10 years in only five months...

Okay, derail over...

[wxman57]

As there appears to be a great deal of confusion as to the wind fields for some of the recent larger hurricane landfalls, I've used the HRD post-storm wind analysis graphics to identify regions of Cat 1-2-3 winds on some of the more siginficant hurricanes.

Here are Ivan and Dennis. Note that Ivan's Cat 3 wind area was actually smaller than Dennis's, though Ivan had a MUCH larger area of Cat 1-2 winds. It's those Cat 1-2 winds that caused all the damage in Florida. Also note that according to the analysis, that Dennis may have produced stronger winds in Florida (on the beach), but over a very small area. Oh, the maps are in MPH. So find your location and you'll get a fair idea what you experienced in these 2 hurricanes.

http://myweb.cableone.net/nolasue/IvanWinds.gif

http://myweb.cableone.net/nolasue/DennisWinds.gif

[wxman57]

And here's the HRD analysis for Katrina with Cat 1-2-3 winds identified. Note that there were no Cat 4 winds indicated anywhere near land. However, compare the area of Cat 3 winds with those of Ivan and Dennis. It's that huge area of Cat 1-2-3 winds that produced the extremely large surge, not the tiny area of higher winds near the core.

http://myweb.cableone.net/nolasue/KatrinaWinds.gif