Did Hurricane Matthew Ever Get Anywhere Near Cat 5?
October 16, 2016
tags: Hurricanes
By Paul Homewood
Damage from Hurricane Matthew
I was away when Hurricane Matthew hit Haiti, so did not get the chance to analyse it.
According to the official records, it hit 160 mph sustained speeds on 1st October, making it the first Cat 5 Atlantic hurricane since 2007. Apparently, if you believe the official view of events, Matthew intensified from a Category 1 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson scale to a Category 5 hurricane in just 24 hours.
However, extremely suspiciously, it only stayed at Cat 5 for 6 hours, before weakening. (In fact, NOAA’s records are at 6-hourly intervals – Matthew reached Cat 5 speeds of 140 Kts at 6.00am on Oct 1st, but dipped to Cat 4 speeds of 135 Kts at 12.00 am. Therefore it stayed at Cat 5 speeds for UNDER 6 hours.)
However, as I have pointed out before, these categorisation of wind speeds are not based on actual measurements, as they would have been in the past. Instead, they are derived from Track History, which in NOAA’s own words is defined as:
https://notalotofpeopleknowthat.wordpress.com/2016/10/16/did-hurricane-matthew-ever-get-anywhere-near-cat-5/
