I suppose they could reclassify systems posthumously. They don't only do that for the big ones - Andrew being upgraded to CAT 5 after 10 years is probably the most famous. Remember, last year, Erika was upgraded to a hurricane several months afterwards, and Claudette was admitted to have attained hurricane status in the Caribbean. I would think that reclassification would account for systems of tropical storm strength that did not get named in recent years, for example Tropical Storm #6 in 1988. Well, that's my opinion, anyway.

As you said, wind gusts in squalls can reach tremendous gusts - sometime in the last 24 hours, somewhere on the Great Plains (I forget where) recorded a gust of 113mph in a squall. I found that on Accuweather, so if anyone wants to try and find it that's where it is.