16 Aren't big tropical cyclones also intense tropical cyclones?
Description
This article is from the Storms FAQ, by Chris Landsea landsea@aoml.noaa.gov with numerous contributions by others.
16 Aren't big tropical cyclones also intense tropical cyclones?
No. There is very little association between intensity (either
measured by maximum sustained winds or by central pressure) and size
(either measured by radius of 15 m/s [gale force] winds or the radius of
the outer closed isobar) (Weatherford and Gray 1988). Hurricane Andrew is
a good example of a very intense tropical cyclone (922 mb central pressure
and 64 m/s (125 kt) sustained winds at landfall in Florida) that was also
relatively small (15 m/s winds extended out only about 150 km from the
center). Weatherford and Gray (1988) also showed that changes of both
intensity and size are essentially independent of one another.
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