[steveegg]

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.

[alancarp]

Interesting: a tornado chaser show on Discovery I saw recently found that there was a 90% factor in wind speeds of a tornado between Doppler measurements (100% measured at 100 ft high or more) and ground level (the 90% value).

[NautiNurse]

Last Vortex Data Message:

VORTEX DATA MESSAGE AL042007
A. 18/02:58:10Z
B. 14 deg 53 min N
065 deg 55 min W
C. 700 mb 2547 m