What is the strongest Hurricane you've been in

[Scorpion]

Exactly. Even with all the hurricanes I have experienced these past 2 years, they only brought Cat 1 conditions to my area. I shutter to think what will happen if a hurricane brings Cat 3 conditions to my area.

[wxman57]

And here is Jeanne's wind analysis. Some Cat 2 winds brushed the coast, but mostly Cat 1 inland:

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

[Scorpion]

That is a surprising wind analysis for Jeanne. According to that, it only brought TS conditions to my area even though we got the eyewall. It was odd though, my neighbor said his concrete house was shaking, so I was assuming at least strong Cat 1 winds in my area.

[wxman57]

That is a surprising wind analysis for Jeanne. According to that, it only brought TS conditions to my area even though we got the eyewall. It was odd though, my neighbor said his concrete house was shaking, so I was assuming at least strong Cat 1 winds in my area.

The wind field around a hurricane is rarely symmetrical. It's not uncommon at all for the hurricane-force winds to be confined to the right front and right rear quadrants. The left side of the eyewall may not contain hurricane-force winds, particularly over land. Also consider that it is possible that the HRD wind analysis is not perfect, it's their best estimate using all surface obs, dropsonde obs, airborne doppler radar surface wind estimates, etc.

And here's Frances. Clearly, Frances's wind field was smaller than Jeanne's. Note that there were no Cat 3 winds analyzed in either Frances or Jeanne.

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

[Extremeweatherguy]

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.

Exactly. There are many people that believe that they had strong Cat. 3 force winds on the north side of Miami from Andrew...or there are some that think that Miami got Cat. 4 force winds from Andrew...and I have to laugh because that was not the case. The cat. 4/5 winds only impacted a small area of homestead NOT Miami. A few storms that did have Cat. 2+ force winds inland over the last few years include Charley (http://www.srh.noaa.gov/mlb/charley/charley_windswath.jpg <<<These are sustained winds...gusts were higher..there was a 105mph gusts at the Orlando International Aiport) which produced Cat. 2/3 forcw winds well inland and then Cat. 1 force winds from Orlando to Daytona. As for Frances, looking at the wind swath, the top inland winds were only 80-90mph sustained, and the only Cat. 2 winds were right at the coast (http://www.srh.noaa.gov/mlb/frances/map ... dswath.jpg), and with Jeanne, the strongest winds (even on the coast) were strong Cat. 1 force. It is weird though because I thought Jeanne had produced much stronger coastal winds, but instead she created weaker hurricane force winds over a larger area (http://www.srh.noaa.gov/mlb/jeanne/jeanne_swath.jpg). The NWS in Melbourne, FL has provided all those great wind swath maps on the links. Basically though, most of us have not seen greater than Cat. 1 force winds...unless you live on the coast...or if you went through Charley along the thin line of Cat. 2/3 force winds which extended to south Orange county, or unless you went through another monster (usually fast moving, and strengthening) storm that happenened to go right over you. It seems that strengthening storms at landfall can produce stronger winds further inland than weakening ones (ex: Charley), and that also goes for smaller storms too. The larger storms tend to produce weaker winds over a larger area, where as the smaller storms tend to produce much stronger winds over a smaller area. Basically were a Cat. 5 charley-like storm (size wise) to make landfall on your coast and be moving at lets say 15mph...then here are the probable wind forces you will feel were it to move RIGHT OVER your area:

Immediate Coast: Cat. 5
Up to 15 miles inland: Cat. 4
Up to 50-60 miles inland: Cat. 3
Up to 80-90 miles inland: Cat. 2
Up to 100-150 miles inland: Cat. 1
Up to 200-300 miles inland: TS

***Now these are not exact, but these are probably the worst case winds your area could recieve from a strom...unless for some god foresakin reason a monsterous 175+mph Cat. 5 were to make landfall (which I hope we never live to see).***

wow that was a lot of writting I just did! lol.

***If the links are not clickable..then copy and paste them to your search bar***

[wxman57]

In case they're missed on "Page 2" of these posts, here are the various HRD wind analyses with Cat 1-2-3 wind fields indicated:

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

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

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

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

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

[Extremeweatherguy]

In case they're missed on "Page 2" of these posts, here are the various HRD wind analyses with Cat 1-2-3 wind fields indicated:

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

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

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

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

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

most people don't believe me when I try to tell them that New Orleans only got Cat. 1 force winds from Katrina...and now this proves it. I have even had some try to tell me that gusts reach 150mph in N.O...wow, were they wrong. If a 75-80mph sustained wind could produce a 150mph gust I would be shocked.

[Extremeweatherguy]

I want to know who the people are that said that they have been through a Cat. 3 or stronger on the poll. Then I want to ask them where they were, and what storm it was, and I bet we could knock off at least half of them.

[Extremeweatherguy]

Cat 5....Got everything Andrew had to offer in Homestead 1992...No to mention the 3 beatings I took in Martin County the past 2 years..

Unless you were standing right on the coast looking over the ocean, I highly doubt you got Cat. 5 force winds, most of the destroyed area from Andrew was caused by Cat.3/4 force winds. Yes, it seemed extreme, but then again, that is why a cat. 3 force wind is called "major".

[wxman57]

Ok, I added Rita to the bottom. I do have some questions about the westward extent of Rita's hurricane force winds toward Port Arthur. Some surface reports indicate that the hurricane force winds extened a little farther west than the map indicates.

One common element in the maps is that you'll see it is VERY RARE for a Cat 3 hurricane to bring Cat 3 winds inland. Surface friction knocks the winds down very quickly to Cat 1-2. Many Cat 1-2 hurricanes do not even bring those Cat 1-2 winds inland, at least as sustained winds. Howerver, the winds just don't go away aloft, they can dip down to the surface as gusts for short periods of time.

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

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

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

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

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

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

[Scorpion]

Cat 5....Got everything Andrew had to offer in Homestead 1992...No to mention the 3 beatings I took in Martin County the past 2 years..

Unless you were standing right on the coast looking over the ocean, I highly doubt you got Cat. 5 force winds, most of the destroyed area from Andrew was caused by Cat.3/4 force winds. Yes, it seemed extreme, but then again, that is why a cat. 3 force wind is called "major".

No, Homestead got Cat 5 winds. It was levelled to the ground. There is no way that borderline 4 winds would do that.

[Scorpion]

Also interesting that the HRD shows Frances giving stronger winds than Jeanne in many areas. I found that odd, since I remember that the winds in Frances were not particularly strong, just prolonged. Wilma winds felt much stronger.

[Opal storm]

If i'm looking at that Dennis map right,it only shows T.S force winds for Pensacola but cat 1 winds were reported in Pensacola.

[Scorpion]

I wonder why the Cat 2 winds from Frances and Jeanne just suddenly stop right at the shore. I mean, aren't the winds 10 meters up anyway? The land is flat, there are not many buildings taller than 10 meters unless you are in a heavily populated area, and not many trees are taller than 10 meters.

[wxman57]

Also interesting that the HRD shows Frances giving stronger winds than Jeanne in many areas. I found that odd, since I remember that the winds in Frances were not particularly strong, just prolonged. Wilma winds felt much stronger.

Yeah, like I said, the vast majority of hurricanes are not symmetrical with respect to their wind fields. No two hurricanes are alike, and the wind fields are constantly changing. Frances appeared to have stronger winds in its western eyewall than did Jeanne at landfall.

I've done my own analysis on Wilma (HRD informed me tha they MAY get Wilma's wind swath out in February) and it appears that Wilma produced a significantly larger hurricane-force wind area than did either Frances or Jeanne. One other interesting fact is that Wilma's wind field was expanding significantly as it moved across south Florida. It was much larger by the time it emerged.

[wxman57]

If i'm looking at that Dennis map right,it only shows T.S force winds for Pensacola but cat 1 winds were reported in Pensacola.

It was a little hard to analyze in that area, but it appers that the southward spike in hurricane-force winds just north of Pensacola on Dennis's western eyewall may have extended a bit more to the south than I indicated. Pensacola did report 66 kt winds. I made an adjustment to the map to indicate a small area of hurricane force wind extending south into Pensacola. I do remember that some dry air was entrained into Dennis's western eyewal at landfall, weakening winds on the left side considerably for at least a while.

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

[Extremeweatherguy]

Cat 5....Got everything Andrew had to offer in Homestead 1992...No to mention the 3 beatings I took in Martin County the past 2 years..

Unless you were standing right on the coast looking over the ocean, I highly doubt you got Cat. 5 force winds, most of the destroyed area from Andrew was caused by Cat.3/4 force winds. Yes, it seemed extreme, but then again, that is why a cat. 3 force wind is called "major".

No, Homestead got Cat 5 winds. It was levelled to the ground. There is no way that borderline 4 winds would do that.

actually they say that the only places that would have possibly had Cat. 5 winds would be at an open area such as an airport or right at the beach. And this also was only in a SMALL portion of southern Homestead. Most destroyed areas only saw Cat. 3/4 force winds sustained.

[beachbum_al]

Cat 3
Frederic in 1979 and Ivan in 2004

[beachbum_al]

Ok, I added Rita to the bottom. I do have some questions about the westward extent of Rita's hurricane force winds toward Port Arthur. Some surface reports indicate that the hurricane force winds extened a little farther west than the map indicates.

One common element in the maps is that you'll see it is VERY RARE for a Cat 3 hurricane to bring Cat 3 winds inland. Surface friction knocks the winds down very quickly to Cat 1-2. Many Cat 1-2 hurricanes do not even bring those Cat 1-2 winds inland, at least as sustained winds. Howerver, the winds just don't go away aloft, they can dip down to the surface as gusts for short periods of time.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Do you have any info on Hurricane Frederic that hit Mississippi/AL coast in 1979? I would be interested in that. Thanks.

[Extremeweatherguy]

Cat 3
Frederic in 1979 and Ivan in 2004

Ivan did not have cat.3 force winds onshore.