Iceresistance wrote:NotoSans wrote:Michael got upgraded because subjective analysis of radar velocities using GBVTD technique yielded 145kt, SFMR was at 152kt (which NHC explicitly said can be questionable), and a pressure of 919mb yielded 140kt using KZC.
Two of the three elements is missing is Ian's case, including SMFR being lower at 137kt, and pressure significantly higher at ~935mb. The key would be radar velocities, but mesovortices were very active in Ian's eyewall, so a single frame cannot be used to estimate the intensity (NHC usually did a 4-bin average). My personal take is that 135kt is a good compromise / blend of all the available data, so I would lean towards no upgrade.
There was a lot of radar data that showed velocities above 180 mph around 11K to 8K feet up.
That is still a borderline case at most. The actual height of the velocity data, how long the winds sustain, etc. are all relevant to intensity estimates.