caneman wrote:Big Dan, I remember it well. Happened right around 9/11. Remember hearing the hurricane Hunters flying off the coast. Probably the only aircraft in the air that day due to storm and 9/11 if memory serves right. Should have been classified as a Cat. 1 Hurricane, instead of 70 mph TS. If memory serves me right, there was lots of evidence to support a later upgrade.
Gabrielle was one weird storm. As it was making landfall near Venice a little south of the Tampa Bay area, its pressure was 980 (which is normally way more than ample evidence of a hurricane), but the Venice obs never got above 50 MPH. Once it moved inland for a couple of hours, it pretty much fell apart and barely had a discernable surface circulation. Later it did briefly become a hurricane over the open Atlantic.
The most remarkable thing about Gabby 2001 was that the next day it brought ridiculously cool air behind it - despite a mid-September sun, the temperature didn't crack 80 and DPs were in the 50s/60s, which almost never happens that early in central Florida.