Rita wind speeds. Cat 2 or 3?

Mike Johnson

Just wondering if anyone has a found an accurate site for Rita wind speeds?
I have not seen any substained wind reports to support Cat. 3?

Thanks:

Mike
 
Lake Charles NWS had problems with several stations and that might be due to it being out.
 
Looking at the initial data -- it is likely that Rita had no "sustained" winds to make it a Cat-3.

Mike
 
The last analysis made by AOML just prior to landfall suggests Rita was right on the border between cat 2 and 3. Guess TPC went on the conservative side and stuck with the 3. Whether cat 3 conditions existed somewhere along the coast or not we'll never know - but it doesn't sound like too much of a stretch based on what observations there are. Expect it will go in the books as cat 3 at landfall.

ftp://ftp.aoml.noaa.gov/pub/hrd/hwind/200...30/col02deg.png

Glen
 
I expect it will go in the books as a cat 3 as well. Since you don't have observations from every area this storm hit it would be hard to prove that cat 3 winds didn't exist somewhere. Unless it was clearly no where near that strong. On the other hand, if you found evidence of a cat 4 then it would be upgraded (I'm not saying that evidence exists).
 
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