What Wxman57 is trying to explain, hope this helps

[John]

Im going to try and explain what wxman57 is telling you and hope you understand. Hurricane Isabel at flight level is a category 2 system however at the surface she is not. Since most of you in the path of Isabel live at the surface you will not experience the Flight level winds of 111KTS. That would only apply to Much higher terrain i.e. VA. Practically all of the Deep convection near the center has vanished...and Isabel's satellite signature is hardly that of a classic Hurricane, yet Recon reports a fairly large radius of maximum winds and a distinct warm core. Even though the Aircraft data shows 111kTS at flight level ... the lack of strong convection strongly implies that these winds will not be mixed well to the surface. In fact observations from the NC coast have shown a 10 MIN mean of only 80 MPH with a peak gust to 98 MPH, you would than have to agree that this is pretty much underneath the Maximum flight level wind since the core of Isabel is just off the cost. This is again not to undermine Isabel, she is a Hurricane but is spending her most aggressive fury well above your head.
John



I

[weathergymnast]

I think.. That sounds resenable.. could still se some isolated cases of higher winds.

[John]

There has been a report of 100 mph sustained via the 1 pm update at the surface.



I just looked at that and yes you are right, that is a strong wind, again not undermining Isabel at all she is a Hurricane, but looking at it from the Science end of the spectrum, it's a lot better than a sustained wind of 120...20 to 30 Miles more makes a great deal of difference in terms of Pressure PSI on the infrastructure.
John.

[Stormcenter]

Very well said John, THANKS!!!