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The problem with this is that wind speed alone is not a good indicator of how destructive a storm can be. Storm surge, mud slides, etc., contribute and can be d
by wpollock 3y ago
The problem with this is that wind speed alone is not a good indicator of how destructive a storm can be. Storm surge, mud slides, etc., contribute and can be deadly even in a category 1 or 2 storm. If the scale is to be updated, it would be beneficial to include other factors in addition to wind speed.
- bombcar 3y agoWind speed is measurable before landfall, many other destructive indicators are only so after the destruction is done.
- interestica 3y agoThe enhanced fujita scale for tornadoes takes into account an assessment of damage after the fact to make a guess of the wind speeds that were produced. An after-the-fact assessment of hurricanes could be useful in creating a categorization that better communicates risk to persons than just windspeed.
- TylerE 3y agoMaybe, but the Fujita scale can greatly under report strength, because the higher grades need to be justified by damage to modern, well built structures. There are tons of tornadoes that meteorologists are sure are at least EF-4 based on Doppler and video, but are rated at EF-1 or EF-2 because they didn’t hit anything but cornfields and sheds.
- basil-rash 3y agoIsn’t that the system working as-designed? We don’t really need to blast the alarm for a few stalks getting bent out of shape.
- TylerE 3y agoIt can lead to a false sense of security... maybe if it turns east instead of north east it barrels into downtown Omaha. In the most extreme case a small tornado in a larger storm that hits no man-built structures may go totally unrecorded. Essentially if you assess tornado risk as something like (frequency * severity) / area, this will under assess risk to a previously developed area that is now being developed. Before there was nothing to hit. Now there is.
- interestica 3y agoI think that's also the challenge of using the same categories/windspeeds of the Saffir-Simpson scale when applying it to a place like Jamaica vs Houston. Both places may face a cat4 hurricane and see very different levels of damage entirely due to the difference in infrastructure.
- bombcar 3y agoIts a matter of informing people how to use the scales - we have temperature and wind chill but people still need to know that -40° will hit the Midwest much differently than -40° would hit Texas.
- jrockway 3y agoClassic example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_El_Reno_tornado https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2013_El_Reno_tornado This had wind speed measured by radar, but ultimately didn't hit any substantial structures, so they couldn't justify anything above EF3. Tornadoes are only rated based on the damage they do to damage indicators, the wind speeds are just best guesses.
- contravariant 3y agoA well placed tree can make any storm deadly, it's perfectly fine to separate the size of the storm from the potential impact. You need to draw a line somewhere. Drawing it at the part you can measure/predict is pragmatic and sensible.
- hedora 3y agoI disagree. Wind causes a different type of damage than mud slides, storm surges, etc. For instance, if you live at high altitudes, you can ignore storm surge when preparing your house.