The sum total of category 3 hurricanes which have targeted Pensacola since records have been kept.

Okay, I realize at first glance this looks like a plate of sphagetti. lol
But if you give it a second and third glance it starts to be pretty revealing..
These lines represent the paths of all hurricanes since the 1850's (the start of record keeping).
The color of the lines corresponds to their Saffir-Simpson rating (category 1,2,3,4,5)
As you can see, no cat 4 or 5 hurricanes have struck here.
And only four category 3 hurricanes (the red lines) have ever had a major impact on Pensacola...

The 1926 hurricane
Opal (1995)
Ivan (2004)
Dennis (2005)

The green lines are tropical storms (below hurricane intensity)

Yeah I am sure the satellites in the 1850s weren't near as precise as they are now.

I was standing in the eye of Erin, looking up, and saw a hurricane hunter aircraft fly by overhead!

I know Erin hit Pensacola too.

Yomama wrote:I was standing in the eye of Erin, looking up, and saw a hurricane hunter aircraft fly by! I know Erin hit Pensacola too.

Yeah good ole Erin flattened my car with an oak tree.

Yomama wrote:I was standing in the eye of Erin, looking uo, and saw a hurricane hunter aircraft fly by! I know Erin hit Pensacola too.

It did. But it was cat 2.

After almost 60 years of living here, I now have my own personal take on hurricanes.
Since I don't live on or very near the water, and I don't live in a Mobile home, and my house has withstood everything less than cat 3 without any damage, I now only worry about cat 3's and greater.
Yes, any hurricane and even tropical storms can do damage to someone somewhere. And so can the tornadoes spun off from them.
But personally those less than cat 3 don't scare me any longer.
So that's why my emphasis on cat 3+.

This is, of course, only my own opinion. I know it's not shared by everyone.

In my case it wasn't the hurricane it was a tornado spun off from the storm that tore that oak tree apart and threw it on my cars...

My first thought when I saw that plane was "who in their right mind would be flying a plane in this weather".

Then realized why the plane was up there. I wish I had taken a picture of it. That woulda been neat.

TEOTWAWKI wrote:In my case it wasn't the hurricane it was a tornado spun off from the storm that tore that oak tree apart and threw it on my cars...

As you were writing this post I was editing mine to include that. lol

Tornadoes can and do happen when tropical cyclones hit. But I look at those like I look at lighting or getting run over by a bus or any of a number of things that can put hurt on me. I just am not all that worried about the odds of that impacting me compared to the odds of what cat 3+ hurricane winds can do to me.

By the way, very many people want to always attribute wind damage in hurricanes to tornadoes. Far more often than it's really a tornado that dunnit.
I'm not trying to say it does not happen. But if everyone who told me a tornado is what did damage to him during Ivan is correct, then most of the wind damage during Ivan was due to tornadoes. There would have needed to be hundreds and hundreds of tornadoes for that to be true.
Far more often, it's just straight line wind bursts and not tornadoes.

I would have given my right arm to be able to look up and see that hurricane hunter flying in the eye, Eric. For a hurricane buff that is just too cool.

Here is why I won't build on the water again. Normally there was over a hundred feet between the house and the water. Just about every hurricane the water did this. Never came inside the house (had enough sense to build two feet above the hundred year flood level), but the fear that you were going to come home to a mess was high.

Bob wrote:

TEOTWAWKI wrote:In my case it wasn't the hurricane it was a tornado spun off from the storm that tore that oak tree apart and threw it on my cars...

As you were writing this post I was editing mine to include that. lol

Tornadoes can and do happen when tropical cyclones hit. But I look at those like I look at lighting or getting run over by a bus or any of a number of things that can put hurt on me. I just am not all that worried about the odds of that impacting me compared to the odds of what cat 3+ hurricane winds can do to me.

By the way, very many people want to always attribute wind damage in hurricanes to tornadoes. Far more often than it's really a tornado that dunnit.
I'm not trying to say it does not happen. But if everyone who told me a tornado is what did damage to him during Ivan is correct, then most of the wind damage during Ivan was due to tornadoes. There would have needed to be hundreds and hundreds of tornadoes for that to be true.
Far more often, it's just straight line wind bursts and not tornadoes.

Well Bob when straight line winds twist an oak tree like a cork screw I will agree with you.