Ophelia became a major hurricane where no storm had before

Re:Ophelia became a major hurricane where no storm had before by littlestymaar on Monday October 16, 2017 @01:27PM (#15485012)

30 years ago, almost the same day, a hurricane category 2 on the Saffir-Simpson scale reached France and the British Isles : http://tempetes.meteofrance.fr/L-ouragan-du-15-au-16-octobre... (in French).

Edit: fixed the quotation on the Saphir Simpson scale that was incorrectly taken from the article.

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Re:Ophelia became a major hurricane where no storm had before by Retric on Monday October 16, 2017 @01:54PM (#15485220)

That did not make landfall as a hurricane.

"In south-east England, where the greatest damage occurred, gusts of 70 knots (130 km/h; 81 mph)" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Storm_of_1987

However, it takes Sustained winds of 111–129 mph to be a Category 3.

Also the great storm of 1987 made landfall significantly south of this one. http://engweb.swan.ac.uk/~hewstonr/Great_Storm.html vs. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Ophelia_(2017)#/medi...

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Re:Ophelia became a major hurricane where no storm had before by littlestymaar on Monday October 16, 2017 @02:30PM (#15485528)

The Meteo France article I quoted is actually a bit misleading, it talks about a category 3 hurricane in a not really rigorous way «damages caused by this storm has been on par with the ones done by a category 3 hurricane» even tough you're right the sustained wind speed has been below the limit for a category 3. It's still strong enough to be classified as a category 1 (in england) or 2 in France.

The actual reason why it wasn't a proper hurricane was because this word is reserved for tropical cyclones. Neither the great storm or Ophelia are tropical.

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Re:Ophelia became a major hurricane where no storm had before by mannykannot on Monday October 16, 2017 @02:37PM (#15485586)

Correlations between the measured wind speeds and damage done by that storm, and another in 1999, have been used to estimate the intensity of the Great Storm of 1703 as a category 2 extra-tropical hurricane.

http://forms2.rms.com/rs/729-DJX-565/images/ws_1703_windstor...

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Re:Ophelia became a major hurricane where no storm had before by mkempe on Monday October 16, 2017 @09:24PM (#15487983)

In August 1971 I witnessed a category 4 hurricane ("ouragan" in French [1]) that wrecked Vallée de Joux, a clock-making valley in the Swiss Jura (a little bit North of the Alps). All trees were down, similar to the landscape near Mount St Helens after its most recent eruption. There are records in the same location of another hurricane in August 1890, as well as one in 1624.

[1] http://www.cnrtl.fr/definition/ouragan

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Re:Ophelia became a major hurricane where no storm had before by death667b on Monday October 16, 2017 @10:26PM (#15488195)

August, when it is hotter. Not October closer to winter..

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Re:Ophelia became a major hurricane where no storm had before by mkempe on Monday October 16, 2017 @11:34PM (#15488485)

Right. Weather, across centuries.

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Re:Ophelia became a major hurricane where no storm had before by interfixus on Monday October 16, 2017 @10:39PM (#15488251)

That one stranded me at Heathrow thirty years ago. Where I thougth back another twenty years, 1967, also to the very day, when an epic storm hit southern Scandinavia, tearing down brick walls and huge swaths of forest. No hurricane that one, but fifty years later still remebered here as the october storm. Is October 17th somehow statistically significant?

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