| cieldumort |
| (Moderator) |
| Wed Jun 30 2010 09:15 PM |
|
Re: strength
|
Quote:
I have seen hurricanes since 1979.....watching them like a hawk since I got creamed by Frederic in Mobile, al.
this is a strong cat 3...and given time...woulda easily become a cat 4...
remember Andrew? actually exploded and strengthened at landfall...this one will too...
While Alex has the pressures to support the notion that it is a "strong cat 3," it does not have the size - and has not had the time, given its size. Like Ike, Alex is an exceptionally large hurricane ~ as such, it takes a good while longer for the winds to catch up with pressure falls... even falls of this magnitude to these currently very low levels.
Alex may yet make a final landfall as a Cat 3, but it is not yet a Cat 3, and will almost certainly not be able to ramp up its winds as rapidly as Andrew did.
In essence, for Alex, size matters, yet for Andrew, size mattered not.