And, as a 32-year professional meteorologist myself I can tell you that even though the computer models yesterday were indeed showing hurricane-force gusts in the hills to the west and northwest of LA - it would be rare to actually see that measured by weather instruments. It is always rare to see max forecasted winds measured in such an event.
BUT - what did we see? The Warm Springs RAWS site measured a gust to 68 MPH. The Wiley Ridge RAWS site measured 62 MPH. Santa Clara measured 50 MPH. Camarillo was at 55.
BUT - Happy Camp Road's weather station measured a gust to 74 mph - which is the official wind speed for the start of hurricane-force winds. Therefore a weather station measured hurricane-force winds. It is HIGHLY likely there were higher winds in the passes where there are no weather stations and the winds were funneled.
So -- just because there are "NO HURRICANE winds on ANY of her weeather maps, none of them!" - doesn't mean there aren't any elsewhere. So - yes - they "all yack about super winds" FOR A REASON.
Because winds gusting to 50 - 60 - 74+ MPH and downsloping over ridges with a humidity level below 10% - over dry vegetation - is a BIG FREAKING DEAL.
So - take some advice - stay out of the deep end when you don't know how to swim.
my hope was to successfully communicate how ridiculous it looks for a weatherman to be reporting about high winds when his weather map says CALM and 3mph
the TV news editor should have caught that patent discrepency
and canned the weather map (or replaced it with one that showed the higher wind reports’ figures...up on the mountaintops like you say)
as a weatherman, I would hate to have to talk about “70 mile gusts” when the big map I am pointing to says “CALM” and “4 mph” all over it
and since 98 percent of the population felt zero or just normal mild breezes with NO big wind gusts at ALL...but still were deliberately plunged into darkness and many with their phone services cut off too
people were not happy, as you can no doubt understand. viewing a weather map saying CALM and no winds, or only 12 mph normal breezes....... was a contradiction not lost on many
just saying