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RedDeerGuy1's avatar

Is it time to revampe the hurricane scale?

Asked by RedDeerGuy1 (24986points) September 14th, 2018

By danger not just wind speed? Some people from CNN think say that a category 2 hurricane is not necessarily less dangerous than a cat 4. It appears to be misleading as to the danger. What do you think?

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4 Answers

ucme's avatar

Highest should be just ate a curry & farted category

rojo's avatar

@RedDeerGuy1 I have been flipping back and forth between several channels that have storm information and every one that I have seen have been trying to impress upon people that just because a storm goes from Cat 4 to Cat 2 does not mean that the danger is any less.
They have all been trying to get across that the designation has to do with wind speed and not the amount of water in the rain or in the tidal surge and that both of these can be just as deadly no matter what the classification.

I think that we really don’t need another classification unless wind speeds increase over 200 MPH which, unfortunately, is a distinct possibility in the upcoming decades.

Although, if you look at Mangkhut with sustained speeds of over 170MPH I think a case could be made that we are beginning to look at a Cat 6 storm in the making.

zenvelo's avatar

The Beaufort scale may need a higher category, but what is needed is a water content scale.

When I was a kid, Hurricane Isbell tracked along the coast of NY state. A Category 3, the wind was vicious. But it hardly rained at all.

The biggest change in the nature of hurrricanes is the amount of moisture from warmer seas.

MrGrimm888's avatar

The problem with hurricanes, is that there are SO many variables at play, that that determine what the damage caused will be. A hurricane, is a hurricane. They should ALL be respected. Getting lucky a few times, makes people complacent.

The categories are reflective of the storms power. But. Speed of the storm, rainfall, storm surge, and SO many other things play a role. A small,slow storm with lots of rain, can be catastrophic, if the areas it hits are below sea level, and / have been saturated with seasonal rainfall before the storm even hits.

I guess I would almost say that the category, just tells you that a bad flooding event is coming, and how the weather will be on top of the flood water.

The flooding, and storm surge do most of the damage.

The storms are generally divided into quadrants. The northeast is by far the most powerful. So. Where the eye makes landfall, is a MASSIVE factor in damage.

As far as revamping the scale goes, I am OK with how it is. However, we have had storms that may point to a pattern of eventually requiring a sixth category.

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