Hi,

I took a look at the various pictures available on the interner of past hurricanes and I came across this one:

http://www1.ncdc.noaa.gov/pub/data/images/hurr-charley-montage.jpg (also attached to this post)

Did you notice that Charley seems to cross the entire Florida peninsula as a Cat.4?!

I always suspected that Charley simply *could* not weaken much due to its very fast forward motion and this data, if correct, seems to suspect my impression.

I live in New Smyrna Beach were a lot of people suspected that Charley's left-side eyewall passed over our houses as a Cat 2 if not Cat 3. On this picture, it seems that Charley drops from Cat 4 to Cat 1 almost immediately somwhere between (this is my best guess) Lake Ashby - Samsula - Port Orange. Would this not suggest that it did probably pass with Cat 2-3 winds over New Smyrna?

Many thanks for any pointers,

VS