I found a cyclone in the South Pacific that underwent an extreme intensification. Since there is very little information about South Pacific cyclones, and even less about Indian Ocean cyclones, I think this might be somehow overlooked.
Cyclone Zoe
This girl went up from 95 kts to 155 kts in just 6 hours. Since there are no pressure readings about this one, we have to settle for the increase in wind, which equals 10 kts per hour.
Compared to the NHC-favorite Forrest, which went up 30 kts in 6 hours and a total of 85 kts in 24 hours, this will result in the following table:
Code:
Cyclone Rate
-----------------------------------------------------------
Forrest 5 kts/h (6 hours) / 3.54 kts/h (24 hours)
Zoe 10 kts/h
I think that if one could estimate the pressures that usually match these windspeeds that a much more impressive pressure drop will be found at Zoe than any other storm listed.
I can also not examine the accuracy of these readings, but seeing the pictures of the completely demolished, trashed, ravaged and flattened island of Tikopia one can only conclude that a very powerfull (cat 5) storm hit this island 6 hours after the 95 kts estimate.
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