Personal HURDAT re-analysis

[neospaceblue]

How many of you think that some HURDAT entries are still wrong even after re-analysis. For me, I think that the Last Island Hurricane, the Indianola Hurricane, San Ciriaco, Galveston and the Florida Keys Hurricane are still wrong as I think that they were Category 5 at peak. Although it hasn't reached re-analysis yet, I believe that Ethel never even became a major hurricane, much less a Category 5.

[Derek Ortt]

Fl Keys was retained as a 160KT cat 5

the others, what evidence do you have that they were cat 5's?

[neospaceblue]

Last Island - I think it might have been weakening when it struck Louisiana and might have peaked at 140kts.
Indianola - The current HURDAT entry has it strengthening up until landfall, so I think that 140-145kts wouldn't be out of the question.
San Ciriaco existed for nearly 30 days, and had an ACE of around 73. Hurricane John, which existed for a similar amount of time and Hurricane Ivan, which had a similar ACE were both Category 5 at peak intensity.
I think that the Galveston storm may have come pretty close or probably reached Category 5 in the Gulf, but dropped to 125-130kts when it struck Galveston.

In addition, I believe that the Great Beaufort Hurricane in 1879 was at least 110kts when it struck North Carolina considering the 138mph reading by the cup anemometer and the estimated 168mph.

[Category 5]

Last Island - I think it might have been weakening when it struck Louisiana and might have peaked at 140kts.
Indianola - The current HURDAT entry has it strengthening up until landfall, so I think that 140-145kts wouldn't be out of the question.
San Ciriaco existed for nearly 30 days, and had an ACE of around 73. Hurricane John, which existed for a similar amount of time and Hurricane Ivan, which had a similar ACE were both Category 5 at peak intensity.
I think that the Galveston storm may have come pretty close or probably reached Category 5 in the Gulf, but dropped to 125-130kts when it struck Galveston.

In addition, I believe that the Great Beaufort Hurricane in 1879 was at least 110kts when it struck North Carolina considering the 138mph reading by the cup anemometer and the estimated 168mph.

Need alot more then that to upgrade a storm.

[brunota2003]

The sad part though? We'll never know what they were.

[wxman57]

Last Island - I think it might have been weakening when it struck Louisiana and might have peaked at 140kts.
Indianola - The current HURDAT entry has it strengthening up until landfall, so I think that 140-145kts wouldn't be out of the question.
San Ciriaco existed for nearly 30 days, and had an ACE of around 73. Hurricane John, which existed for a similar amount of time and Hurricane Ivan, which had a similar ACE were both Category 5 at peak intensity.
I think that the Galveston storm may have come pretty close or probably reached Category 5 in the Gulf, but dropped to 125-130kts when it struck Galveston.

In addition, I believe that the Great Beaufort Hurricane in 1879 was at least 110kts when it struck North Carolina considering the 138mph reading by the cup anemometer and the estimated 168mph.

As Derek asked, what evidence do you have of any of these conclusions? "I think that the Galveston storm may have reached Cat 5 in the Gulf because..." Keep in mind that a hurricane's peak wind plays only a very small part in the development of a storm surge.

[cycloneye]

To have more complete information about this theme,its better that links to the theme that the member is talking about are posted as is the best way to have more clarity and sufficient data to not have the members asking questions about the veracity of this.

[neospaceblue]

This weekend I did some research on the mentioned storms taking into consideration the response from my last couple of posts. Here are my revised estimates:

Last Island - I think it might have been weakening when it struck Louisiana and might have peaked at 140kts.

After looking at the track, I stay with the 130kt listing.

Indianola - The current HURDAT entry has it strengthening up until landfall, so I think that 140-145kts wouldn't be out of the question.

I am still thinking that the Indianola storm was around 140kts when it struck.

San Ciriaco existed for nearly 30 days, and had an ACE of around 73. Hurricane John, which existed for a similar amount of time and Hurricane Ivan, which had a similar ACE were both Category 5 at peak intensity.

I can't any point in the track that would support San Ciriaco getting any stronger than 130kts.

I think that the Galveston storm may have come pretty close or probably reached Category 5 in the Gulf, but dropped to 125-130kts when it struck Galveston.

The strongest possible strength I would give for the Galveston storm is 135kts.

I have added another possible candidate for Category 5 intensity: Hazel, which I believe reached at least 140kts in the Caribbean. I also believe that Janet had winds of at least 155-160kts when it struck Belize as the point that lists 150kts still places Janet far enough offshore to allow further strengthening between then and landfall. Janet also probably dropped below 900mb since the 914mb is associated with the 135kt reading.

[Chacor]

The question though, which you've been avoiding, is on what basis are you making these calls?