I have long suspected that the strength of hurricanes has been overstated by the powers that be to generate scary headlines. Look at this picture of Ian making landfall.
Not a single personal weather station is reporting a wind speed of more than 50 miles per hour. Now in all fairness, large areas are without internet and power, so some reports may be missing.
My guess is that we won’t have winds over 40.
So far here, our highest wind speed has been 22 miles per hour and we have gotten right at 2 inches of rain. So far, so good.
EDITED TO ADD: I just found a station reporting 94 miles per hour.
Also, our entire area lost hardwire internet and cable television connectivity at 1547. I am making this update by cell phone.
5 Comments
Tom from East Tennessee · September 28, 2022 at 5:48 pm
I’m a little relieved to hear that… sure 150 mph sounds better from the media perspective but that’s pretty interesting, the data feed you found there. I’ll take it though. In Orlando here, I’ve seen predictions of 60 mph winds with 85 mph gusts. They say (accuweather) that we’ll have that by 8pm tonight… it’s about an hour before that and just looking at my backyard I’d say it’s more like 20 mph. Not complaining mind you but I would like to understand the disconnect.
Divemedic · September 28, 2022 at 5:54 pm
It’s called Wundermap. People who have personal weather stations like mine have them linked to this map so you can see weather in realtime. Check it out.
https://www.wunderground.com/wundermap?lat=27.53&lon=-81.53&cm_ven=localwx_wumap
One thing that I am noticing that I am missing here is that once a station loses power or Internet service, that station doesn’t report. So perhaps the stations from the hardest hit areas aren’t reporting. For example, I lost Internet a couple of hours ago, so my station is no longer reporting.
SiG · September 29, 2022 at 9:49 am
The whole story about how winds are reported is really confusing – let me rush to add that I don’t feel confident I know the whole story either.
They apparently measure at different heights and then adjust them to what they’d be if they were at 10 meters. Why? Hell if I know. That’s like a 3 story building and the vast majority of Florida is one or two stories. The winds will be higher at 10m than most houses will see because in the lower heights there will be more turbulence and blockage from nearby obstacles. If you’re on a five or ten story, beachside condo, it’s more meaningful.
Why adjust every measurement to 30′? Wouldn’t they do more good by saying taller buildings need to be rated to higher winds? The NWS can’t do that, but they can tell you anything in a weather report.
But maybe I’m being paranoid.
Divemedic · September 29, 2022 at 10:53 am
It’s all of this “adjusting” that results in adjusted temps for global warming. Or climate change. Or whatever they are calling it now.
Jonathan · September 29, 2022 at 1:01 pm
Note that wind measurements are higher now than they were for historical storms in part because they report winds from hurricane aircraft, towers (cell phone, radio, etc), etc.
As you know, wind speeds pick up quickly as elevation increases, so a higher elevation measurement at the same place and time will give a higher reading.
And of course, as mentioned, sensationalism is in play as are more people building in vulnerable places.
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