North Indian Ocean Cyclone season 2013

[andyhb]

I doubt it was a Cat 4, the thing was clearly unraveling quickly at landfall, a far cry from the beast it was 12-24 hrs prior.

 

Still, if IMD claims this as some sort of "win", then they are right for the completely wrong reasons.

[thewxmann]

Here are the data. The anemometer functioned and took measurements through to the eye-- you can see the velocity dip coinciding with the lowest pressure:

http://inet.nio.org/mid/Gopalpur_AWS/

I'm not suggesting 49 kt is representative of the storm's intensity at the time. Surface obs almost never are. But these data do make me wonder if this thing was a Cat 4 at landfall.

 

It almost certainly was not a Cat 4. Probably low end Cat 3.

 

Wind damage at Gopalpur might be a better indicator of LF intensity than the observations (just because the latter may have failed prior to peak conditions).

[HurricaneJosh]

I doubt it was a Cat 4, the thing was clearly unraveling quickly at landfall, a far cry from the beast it was 12-24 hrs prior.

Still, if IMD claims this as some sort of "win", then they are right for the completely wrong reasons.

I think they are claiming it as vindication.

It almost certainly was not a Cat 4. Probably low end Cat 3.

Wind damage at Gopalpur might be a better indicator of LF intensity than the observations (just because the latter may have failed prior to peak conditions).

The anemometer did not fail prior to peak conditions. See above-- it functioned into the eye and actually recorded the calming that coincided with the lowest pressure.

[metagraphica]

Here are the data. The anemometer functioned and took measurements through to the eye-- you can see the velocity dip coinciding with the lowest pressure:

http://inet.nio.org/mid/Gopalpur_AWS/

I'm not suggesting 49 kt is representative of the storm's intensity at the time. Surface obs almost never are. But these data do make me wonder if this thing was a Cat 4 at landfall.

 

The link you posted clearly says m/s   Meters per second.   21.5m/s x 60 x 60 / 1.6  to get mph  Which in this case is around 48.37mph. 

 

So, yeah 49kt seems to be the peak measurement there.

[HurricaneJosh]

The link you posted clearly says m/s   Meters per second.   21.5m/s x 60 x 60 / 1.6  to get mph  Which in this case is around 48.37mph. 

 

So, yeah 49kt seems to be the peak measurement there.

Thx!

[thewxmann]

Lost in all the news about Haiyan, there was another TC this week that killed >100 people:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/11/11/us-somalia-storm-puntland-idUSBRE9AA0K420131111

 

There have only been a handful of TC's to hit Somalia in the past few decades.

[andyhb]

Not sure where else to put this, but TC Hellen in the Northern Channel moving towards Madagascar had a 61 mb drop in pressure and an increase of 90 mph in winds in 24 hrs (currently a strong cat 4 on the SS scale with 150 mph winds).

 

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2655

[donsutherland1]

Not sure where else to put this, but TC Hellen in the Northern Channel moving towards Madagascar had a 61 mb drop in pressure and an increase of 90 mph in winds in 24 hrs (currently a strong cat 4 on the SS scale with 150 mph winds).

 

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=2655

Its rapid intensification was very impressive. Its symmetry and relatively small eye were very impressive even before it attained peak strength.