Weather Banter - View Single Post

Richard Dixon[_2_] · August 27th 11, 06:52 PM posted to uk.sci.weather

Adam Lea wrote in news:-
:

On 27/08/11 10:30, Fonzy wrote:
if a storm of that force happened in the carribean, would it have
called
a tropical storm or a hurricane? if so what category would it be 1-5?

There were peak sustained winds recorded of 85 mph at Dover, but that
was a 10-minute mean. Hurricane categories are defined relative to a
1-minute mean, which is roughly 12% higher. That would give an
estimated
1-minute sustained wind at Dover of 95 mph which is the top end of
Category 1. However, it is extremely unlikely that this would represent
the peak wind within the whole storm and thus it is virtually certain
that higher winds would have been measured, say, over the channel. It
is
therefore likely that peak sustained wind speeds in the storm were
equivalent to a low-end category 2 hurricane.

Beat me to it, Adam - I often cite the 100 knot gust at Shoreham Airport
- which should convert back to about 84 knots for a 1-minute sustained if
my conversions for over-sea wind speed converstions are correct (highly
doubtful!). 84 knots = weak cat 2 winds.

Richard