We aren't talking semantics. We're talking cold, hard numbers. If a storm doesn't have 75 mph winds, it isn't a hurricane. There isn't room to say "yeah, but we should call it that." Recon only found 75mph Flight Level winds...which translates to 65-70mph surface winds...under hurricane strength. Furthermore dropsound found only 60mph? surface winds. Also under hurricane strength. This thing's got an excellent satellite signature, but its winds aren't strong enough for it to be a hurricane. It's pressure is still about 10mbs higher than it needs to be for the winds to hit hurricane strength. Yeah, strengthening is expected overnight...but it stil isn't a hurricane yet.

(I think I said "isn't too many times in there

)

And...dang...she looks strong on Satellite.

Night...Zzzzzzzzzzzz

--RC

Just a quick note...there is no hard and set level for hurricanes in terms of sea level pressure. There have been tropical storms with pressures <980mb, particularly over land, while there have been hurricanes with pressures of ~1000mb. The old number I used to use is 994mb, which is probably a little high. It depends partially upon the size of the storm, the external (background) pressures, the rotational aspects of the storm, and a few other balance factors; needless to say, it's not easy to calculate a true wind-pressure correlation other than the fact that as the pressure falls, the wind generally increases. --Clark