Derek Ortt wrote:Cat 5s dont have a alrge RMW.
Even Gilbert had an RMW of about 8NM. The rest was all cat 1-2 winds. Even the southern eye wall of Andrew only had marginal cat 3 conditions.
Very, very small areas (about 1-2 miles wide and from the coast to 1-2 miles) experience the strongest of winds
Derek, after Camille had been over land for 3-4 hours, sustained winds of 120 mph were recorded at Columbia, Mississippi (gusting to 140)...80 miles inland. Apparently the center of the eye passed nearly over the location, which tells me even stronger winds likely occurred just east of the Columbia observer's location. While Camille was indeed a small, compact hurricane....there is considerable evidence that cat-4/5 (131+ mph) sustained winds occurred along the coastline from Bay St Louis to just east of Gulfport....a swath some 25-30 miles wide, and along a narrower swath inland along/ east of the eye for perhaps 60 miles (using the Thornhill obs at Columbia, MS as a guide).
While I agree that in most circumstances, the radius of max winds is small in a cat-5, there are exceptions to the rule; it also doesn't take cat-5 sustained winds to devastate a coastal city. I don't know where you got the information regarding hurricane Gilbert RMW, but I've examined the 700 mb flight level data when it was in the 888-900 mb range, and strong cat-3 and cat-4 winds extended out quite a ways from the eye.
In fact, Dr Hugh Willoughby himself stated (re: Gilbert) while onboard a recon mission "you don't see many hurricanes like this..."a hurricane which can produce a swath of damage similar to a major tornado perhaps 40 miles wide". A swath of F3/F4 (160-215 mph gusts) tornado damage 40 miles across Dade and Broward counties of Florida would be catastrophic....so would similar intensity wind speeds in the Houston/Galveston area.
We've been very lucky that the three landfalling U.S. category 5 hurricanes since 1900 have all been extremely small and compact. Even so, there's no reason a mega-sized cat-5 monster the size of Isabel or Gilbert hasn't slammed into the U.S. coastline, and no reason it won't. Also, as large and intense cat-4 hurricanes (.e. 1900 Galveston, 1926 Miami, 1928 Palm Beach) have proven during the past century, it doesn't take a cat-5 to destroy cities and end many lives....I've already cited the likely impact of a "Hugo" sized cat-4 would have on southern Florida.
Take a look at this radar shot folks:
http://floridadisaster.org/hurricane_aw ... _large.gif
Check out the size of Hugo's eye and surrounding eyewall)...then try to imagine it crossing south Florida from south Dade to Naples....or Miami to Fort Myers Beach

PW