Ophelia became a major hurricane where no storm had before

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...

[ Parent | on HN ]

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.

[ Parent | on HN ]

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...

[ Parent | on HN ]