A rant and a reminder.

[jinftl]

I remember during Hurricane Frances being convinced I was experiencing gusts to hurricane force, only to find out later that the gusts were only to about 55 mph that I had experienced.

During Wilma, when I legitimately was experiencing hurricane force gusts, and then sustained hurricane force winds, it was an entirely different level of experience. It was almost surreal....the only way I can describe it is that 'things that weren't supposed to happen' started happening...I saw windows in the building across the courtyard from my blow out, i saw trees bend in ways that shouldn't, i heard the 'train' sound people allude to. Everything was almost in slow motion.

Part of the misperception about tropical storms is that people greatly overestimate the winds they think they have experienced in either a tropical storm or hurricane. Most people would be shocked as to what sustained winds of 50mph with gusts to 70mph are really like...

I think I even saw an instance of that in one of these thread during Fay.

I was in a tropical storm that did have sustained 50mph winds, nothing more than that, and I kind of doubt the gusts were as high as 70, couldn't say. I was amazed at how strong 50mph really is (confession - I stupidly opened the door and stepped out on the balcony... and struggled to get back in LOL). There was debris blowing in the wind, stuff snapping, wild.

Isn't it true that 50mph is much less than half the strength of 100mph winds? Something about how the windspeed increases exponentially - what exactly does that mean?

[DanKellFla]

Part of the misperception about tropical storms is that people greatly overestimate the winds they think they have experienced in either a tropical storm or hurricane. Most people would be shocked as to what sustained winds of 50mph with gusts to 70mph are really like...

I think I even saw an instance of that in one of these thread during Fay.

I was in a tropical storm that did have sustained 50mph winds, nothing more than that, and I kind of doubt the gusts were as high as 70, couldn't say. I was amazed at how strong 50mph really is (confession - I stupidly opened the door and stepped out on the balcony... and struggled to get back in LOL). There was debris blowing in the wind, stuff snapping, wild.

Isn't it true that 50mph is much less than half the strength of 100mph winds? Something about how the windspeed increases exponentially - what exactly does that mean?

The pressure from wind increases with the square of the speed. So, 100 mph winds apply four times the pressure as 50 mph winds.

[Thunder44]

It's just a tropical storm when they don't sit over you for days.