What was the highest Measured Wind

[swimaster20]

Anderson Cooper and John Zarrella are on CNN right now in Pensacola... trees are snapping all around and debris is flying.

I think this was a Cat 3.

Cooper and Zarrella aren't seeing anything near Cat3 conditions.

However, they were about 13 miles inland, we haven't seen anything on the islands yet.

[rtd2]

Wind speed at 5K - 7K feet is no good - we need real world (and not gusts) from ground obs.

There were no Cat 3 winds in Ivan observed, but they happened.

I don't even remember a gust near 121 mph reported in Ivan.

Good point good! Only so many instruments set up to monitor!

[Horatio 'Cane]

120 MPH--although Opal Beach has reported winds in the 75-80 Knot vicinity.

[PurdueWx80]

One of the two following factors likely contributed to the weakening trend - we'll find out at the end of the season when best track comes out:

1. Eyewall replacement cycle occurred so that "weaker" phase of cyclone was during landfall.

2. Hurricane Cindy (which I have a feeling will be the case after best track comes out for her) left behind significantly cooler waters in the far northern Gulf, right where Dennis began weakening.

Perhaps it's a combo of both.

Also, the storm JUST made landfall, we'll be hearing about estimated/measured winds for days (once power is restored and such) and we have yet to see the extent of damage in the area. No sense in getting fussy over what this storm was at landfall this soon.

[Brent]

Anderson Cooper and John Zarrella are on CNN right now in Pensacola... trees are snapping all around and debris is flying.

I think this was a Cat 3.

Cooper and Zarrella aren't seeing anything near Cat3 conditions.

True... HOWEVER they are well inland and they were in the Western Eyewall, typically not where the strongest winds are.

[stu]

We need the ground Obs from Elgin Airforce base

[jpigott]

gust to 110mph - heard that on CNN or MSNBC can't remember which one

[otowntiger]

gust to 110mph - heard that on CNN or MSNBC can't remember which one

A cat 1 could muster that, key word being "gusts".

[Sanibel]

From the radar image you could see Dennis took a huge slug of dry air in from the SW and wrapped it right into the core. The lack of rain being reported confirmed this.

The west side 121mph was due to the deep convection being pushed to the NW eyewall because of this.


Dennis had a core and movement like Charley, but faded just before shore like Ivan...

[Hurricaneman]

cat 2 110 at most

[stu]

The reporting station at pensacola reported 968mb and 35G53 Knots max

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/show_plot.php? ... pres&uom=M

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/show_plot.php? ... wspd&uom=E

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/show_plot.php? ... wgst&uom=E

[stu]

Very interesting project and we have a have a 130pmh gust at least from a tower in Navarre Beach


http://users.ce.ufl.edu/~fcmp/

3.0 Sec 53.9 m/s ( 120.7 mph) @ 104.4° @ 10/19:19:24
2.0 Sec 54.1 m/s ( 121.0 mph) @ 104.6° @ 10/19:19:25
1.0 Sec 56.5 m/s ( 126.3 mph) @ 106.3° @ 10/19:22:45
0.1 Sec 58.9 m/s ( 131.8 mph) @ 104.3° @ 10/19:22:45



http://grove.ufl.edu/~fcmp/Dennis/T0/NO ... -09-00.txt

[gkrangers]

The eastern eyewall hit largely unpopulated areas and barrier islands. There will be a lack of surface observations.

Don't let this lull people into calling Dennis a 950mb Category 1 hurricane.

[Derecho]

A FLORIDA COASTAL MONITORING PROGRAM TOWER...ON THE COAST NEAR
NAVARRE BEACH FLORIDA...REPORTED SUSTAINED WINDS OF 99 MPH...WITH
GUSTS TO 121 MPH...NEAR THE TIME OF LANDFALL.


I'd say there's a good chance it ends up as a Cat 2 landfall in the final report.

[jpigott]

can anyone tell me what the highest recorded (not estimated) sustained wind and gust that has been found in a hurricane when it made landfall

[Swimdude]

Can someone tell me why we're questioning whether this was a cat. 3 or not? It's not like EVERYONE is going to experience 120 mph sustained winds. That's just not going to happen. Even if the eye went directly over you, that's not likely. Of course it was a cat. 3.

[Aslkahuna]

Highest recorded gust in a landfalling hurricane is probably the 186 mph gust recorded at Blue Hill Observatory during the 1938 Long Island Express. The analysis recently posted elsewhere shows that the maximum sustained surface wind at landfall in Dennis was 107 kt (122 mph) 7 miles east of the center. This is a Cat 3 landfall but the extreme winds were very limited in areal coverage.

Steve

[Foladar]

I say leave it a cat 3 and stop worrying about it.
There's plenty more other storms to worry about instead