Phil:
I wanted to respond to your comments on the Nat'l Geographic documentary re: vorticities in the eyewall:
We were north of Charlie, never lost power, and were fascinated as the new technology in use by the TV mets (VIPR) broadcast in agonizing slow motion the land fall of the storm. What was most interesting was the shear markers in the radar and the discussion of vorticies riding around the eye wall as the storm hit.
One only needs to look at the damage the Punta Gorda/ Port Charlotte to see the explosive nature of the winds that did so much destruction. Indeed the video we were able to watch on this site also showed that...only a few minutes of very violent winds.
One of the facts that fascinates me the most about that storm was the extrordinary pressure gradient that existed within a very few miles...the pressure differences where the film crew was along I75 about 10 -15 miles from the "center" as the storm came over Pine Island toward the mainland was 20-30 MB higher than the central pressure itself.
One only has to watch video of a tornado to see what was actually going on with Charlie as it came to shore. We all have seen those shots of the core funnel cloud which is spinnig rapidly, when suddenly additional vorticies race outward from the funnel as they spin around the core as well..That must be what was going on.
I have been to Pensacola as well where Ivan's eyewall scraped ashore and the damage there is what I would more traditionally expect in a classic Storm...more straight line oriented, in my opinion.
Fascinating stuff.