[rodguy911]

I think part of the problem is that that typically when you have a barometer near 28.00 and I saw a 28.15 on a NC buoy site,you expect much stronger winds. The two just typically go together.

It's indeed odd to have such a low barometer almost in the 27's with only 80 mph sustained winds. Barometers that low are typical with cat 3 or even 4 storms. This one is indeed a strange duck.It could easily put up some question marks.

[alancarp]

you expect much stronger winds.

This is certainly true - Joe Bastardi (for one) has been beside himself all day tweeting about the incongruity of it all. Now the buoys and weather stations haven't reported anything beyond about 78mph on the winds - but those are static data grabs - not the maximums.

Nonetheless, the highest wind gust of any kind I've actually heard has been 115 mph...and nothing sustained near that. My own amateurish best guess here is that the sheer size of the storm is being held together by that low pressure, but something else about its characteristics is keeping the wind speeds from being more typical of a 950 mb storm ... normally a solid Cat 3.

[Mr. Jeeves]

It's indeed odd to have such a low barometer almost in the 27's with only 80 mph sustained winds. Barometers that low are typical with cat 3 or even 4 storms. This one is indeed a strange duck.It could easily put up some question marks.

NHC says that winds a few hundred feet above the ground are much stronger - so New York could still get 90 MPH winds hitting the Manhattan buildings, even if the surface level winds have dropped to tropical storm strength.