Matt Drudge has been coming under fire for accusing NOAA of over exaggerating Hurricane Matthew's data. The hurricane's eyewall passed right over a data buoy, and the highest sustained wind reported was 56 knots, with a gust to 68. That is FAR below the reported strength. In fact, not one weather station has reported winds of the reported strength. In fact, the station in the Bahamas is not only offline, but so is all of its historical data.
Here at my location, the highest wind we have had is 25 mph. We have gotten an inch and a half of rain in the past 24 hours, and most of that was a single band that passed over us yesterday afternoon.
The preparations for this storm cost the people of this state tens of millions of dollars, far more than the storm damage cost. There were already people who refused to evacuate, and next time there will be even more who refuse to do so.
Good job, NHC.
Over on the coast, we had a bit more storm, but nowhere near the hysterical rant that was going on in the media. My power went out about 4AM when the storm was at its closest, but instead of being overhead as forecast, a direct hit with 140 mph winds, it was 30-ish miles offshore and 120 mph winds (or so they say...).
ReplyDeleteBottom line for me is that I don't think we got hurricane force winds at all; or if we did, it was for a short squall.
For a couple of hours this morning, I used the backup power and the cable TV/internet connection was fine. The cable went out about 7AM. Power came back on about 4:30 this afternoon and the cable started working around that same time. It was still classified as a "Major Hurricane" because 120 mph is in Cat3 and they consider that Major.
I spent some time looking at data from automated ocean buoys and shore-mounted stations, but never saw anything that would imply the winds they were talking about. The NHC is in that double-bind situation they've been in ever since the incident that led to the story that became the movie "The Perfect Storm". They almost have to make their forecasts for the worst case scenario, not the most likely, so they don't get sued over "how come you didn't tell me it would be that bad?"