Low Pressure System "Franziska"

[Extratropical94]

The first real storm of this season is sweeping through the North Sea area.
Her name is Franziska and she's the 110th named low pressure area of 2012 in Central Europe.
I went to the coast this evening (20:00 CEST = 2:00 pm EDT) to measure wind speeds at the North Sea dike.
Here's what I got:

Top gusts:
134 km/h (83.5 mph) (twice!)
126 km/h (78.5 mph)
125 km/h (77.5 mph)
124 km/h (77.0 mph)
122 km/h (76.0 mph)
121 km/h (75.0 mph) (3 times)

1-min sustained (max.):
98 km/h (61.0 mph)

3-min sustained (max.):
92 km/h (57.0 mph)

10-min sustained (max.):
88 km/h (54.5 mph)

The storm that brought hurricane-force wind gusts to Germany, southern Denmark and the Netherlands also triggered a storm tide here at the German North Sea coastline.
The term storm tide is assigned to water levels that are at least 1.50 m (4.9 ft) higher than the mean high water.

Although the astronomical tide today was about 20 cm (8 inches) below the MHW, the wind induced surge accumulated to a height of 1.85 m (6.1 ft), which eventually led to a storm tide of approximately 1.65 m (5.4 ft) above the mean high water.

This marked the first time this season that the water levels rose above the storm tide threshold in Northern Germany.

Of course, with the dike being roughly 7 meters (23 feet) higher than the MHW, no cultivated land was inundated.

[Hurricane_Luis]

This website was issuing "Advisorys" on this system its name is the European Windstorm Center

https://sites.google.com/site/europeanwindstormcenter/

I think its very good, it even has forecast tracks on it.

[Extratropical94]

It's an unofficial google site run by a private weather enthusiast.

There are lots of mistakes on the site (almost every third word is wrongly spelled) and to be honest I've never heard of a Potter-Wood European Windstorm Scale.
We use the regular Beaufort scale for wind speeds here and almost all of the official agencies do so, I believe.
Additionally, why would someone call a system a "European Depression" or invent a 6th category for 2-min winds of more than 200 mph?
100 mph gusts are frequent, especially in Scotland, but 200 mph sustained are just unrealistic.

The intensities of the storms are guesstimates only and the advisories really aren't that detailed.

Sorry for ranting, but I'd stick to the official weather agencies.

[Hurricane_Luis]

It's an unofficial google site run by a private weather enthusiast.

There are lots of mistakes on the site (almost every third word is wrongly spelled) and to be honest I've never heard of a Potter-Wood European Windstorm Scale.
We use the regular Beaufort scale for wind speeds here and almost all of the official agencies do so, I believe.
Additionally, why would someone call a system a "European Depression" or invent a 6th category for 2-min winds of more than 200 mph?
100 mph gusts are frequent, especially in Scotland, but 200 mph sustained are just unrealistic.

The intensities of the storms are guesstimates only and the advisories really aren't that detailed.

Sorry for ranting, but I'd stick to the official weather agencies.

Cheers Extratropical, ill stick with the Met Office