In article ,
Mike1 wrote:
(Sim Aberson) wrote:
NHC forecast advisories already include gusts.

Given my sampling of public (esp. televised) update statements, I'd say
that not enough effort is being made to promote gusts as an important
piece of information.

You should contact your local media to include this information.

Insufficiently-informative MSW-labeling schemes lead to goofy
revisionist business like a burst-phasing hurricane Andrew being altered
after the fact to a cat5 due to extreme gusts well in excess of the cat4
145MSW at landfall causing catastrophic damage.

Andrew was revised upward to a category 5 based on maximum sustained
winds.

Measured by what, when? If the info was of a timely nature, you'd figure
the upgraded classification would have made the news while the storm was
still winding toward Louisianna, yet I recall nothing of the sort.

Since 1992, we have developed the GPS dropwindsonde that measures winds
in the strongest part of the hurricane - the eyewall. We never
previously had that capability. We also now have the SFMR, stepped
frequency microwave radiometer, that also measures surface winds on
research aircraft. With these two new instruments, we are able to
estimate surface winds from flight level winds of past storms far better
than we could before. Given the new knowledge, it became clear that
Andrew was a category 5 hurricane instead of category 4 as previously
found. http://www.aoml.noaa.gov/hrd/hurdat/clanalysis.html

Other storms are also being reassessed.

(Have MSW time-duration requirements softened, such than winds formerly
classified as gusts are now labeled MSWs?)

Nope. Sustained winds are (and have been) defined as one-minute mean
winds at 10 m above the surface.
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