In this study, we aim to bridge the gap between research and operations for sustained wind speed and gusts over land. We suggest improvements in the interpolation methods used within the TCMWindTool. These suggestions include alternatives to the linear decay assumption to interpolate six hourly forecast verification times to hourly grids and to the modified Rankine vortex approach currently used. A larger focus for the study is on improvements in the land decay factor and gust factors applied in the TCMWindTool for various locations and tropical cyclone impacting situations. Objective bias calculations are shown for recent past forecasts issued by local WFOs, comparing to observations as well as the Hurricane Research Division H*Wind products. The verification indicates a general overprediction in sustained wind speeds for recent TCs impacting the study region and a need to increase land reduction factors used in the TCMWindTool. An analysis of gust factors for recent storms in the study region suggests gust factors of 20% as a minimum threshold, increasing to up to 60% in cases of continental flow and in cases of weak sustained wind speeds. Statistical analysis of the land reduction and gust factors are being combined with high resolution large eddy simulations of recent landfalling TCs with different thermodynamic and boundary layer conditions to provide research results that operational forecasters can directly benefit from.