Exactly why I gave the disclaimer! But maybe you can enlighten me here: That ‘flight level’ wind figure at the bottom — are we talking a few thousand feet up? Or is that the closest thing we have to a ground-level number?
That's a direct measurement at (usually) whatever the aircraft is at flying the 700 mb flight level (sometimes 850 mb). That's about 10,000 feet up in a major hurricane, and IIRC, the usual conversion to sea-level winds is 90%.
Of course, it's been close to a year since I had to try to remember this, so some help please.