Comments on: Hurricane forecast: unravelling the storms http://www.hawaii.edu/malamalama/2011/04/hurricane/ The magazine of the University of Hawai'i System Thu, 06 Sep 2012 21:11:28 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: George Curtis http://www.hawaii.edu/malamalama/2011/04/hurricane/#comment-101252 George Curtis Sat, 30 Apr 2011 03:00:20 +0000 http://www.hawaii.edu/malamalama/?p=7736#comment-101252 A caution about public use of “categories”. These have not normally been used in Hawai`i since they were developed for the Atlantic and Gulf coasts. In Hawai`i, a Cat 2 just off shore can (and has) become a 3 or 4 due to orographic amplification.

Many NWS records are drawn from the usual stations located at airports — mostly nearshore and flat.

So, caution has to be used in discussing or warning about windspeeds in Hawai`i and storm categories. You may realize that, but not all forcasters do.

George Curtis (ex-JIMAR)

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