Thunderbird12
(Meteorologist)
Thu Sep 08 2005 08:05 PM
Re: Ophelia

I believe that when they are flying at the 850mb level, as they have been so far with Ophelia, they use a 20% reduction in flight-level winds, so you would take the flight-level winds and multiply by 0.8 to get the estimated surface winds. When they are flying at the 700 mb level, they use a 10% reduction, so you would multiply by 0.9.

Those estimates may not be used if there is other evidence of the max surface winds. In this case, they can look at radar data as well to estimate the wind field.



Note: This is NOT an official page. It is run by weather hobbyists and should not be used as a replacement for official sources. 
CFHC's main servers are currently located at Hostdime.com in Orlando, FL.
Image Server Network thanks to Mike Potts and Amazon Web Services. If you have static file hosting space that allows dns aliasing contact us to help out! Some Maps Provided by:
Great thanks to all who donated and everyone who uses the site as well. Site designed for 800x600+ resolution
When in doubt, take the word of the National Hurricane Center