Saffir-Simpson Scale | A Half-Century-Old Hurricane Categorization System
The Saffir-Simpson scale is a widely used scale that categorizes hurricanes by wind speed. Learn more about it here…
The Saffir-Simpson Scale is the categorization system used to rank hurricanes from 1-5 using wind speed. Some things can make the scale misleading, though. Wind speed isn’t the only hazard during a hurricane. There are other hazards like storm surge, precipitation-caused flooding, and duration. There are some things to talk about that have to do with the scale, one reason is because it was made over half a century ago, and the scale is generally pretty interesting.
This post is all about the Saffir-Simpson scale.
The Wind-Based Saffir-Simpson Scale
What is the Saffir-Simpson Scale?
The Saffir-Simpson scale is a wind-based categorization system that ranks hurricanes from Category 1-5. Category 1 hurricanes are the weakest type, with Category 1 hurricane wind speeds reaching 74-95 mph. Category 5 is the strongest going at 157+ mph. No other factors go into the scale, so the category does not have a relation with the size or storm surge, which are deadly, too. Most hurricane deaths are from storm surges, so do not associate the category with any other factors.
The Scale and Storm Surge
The multiple causes of storm surges can generally make stronger hurricanes have larger storm surges. There are 2 main causes. The first one is the wind, pushing the water onto the shore. The second is the pressure, making the surges. We do not entirely associate hurricane strength with storm surge though. Bigger hurricanes generally have larger storm surges because there is more water to push.
The Problem with the Scale (and Hurricane Scales in General)
Even though the Saffir-Simpson scale can be good for categorizing a hurricane’s wind speeds, it is not as good for other hurricane factors like storm surge. People can think that hurricanes with higher rankings also have bigger storm surges and heavier precipitation, but that is untrue. For example, Hurricane Katrina landed as a Cat. 3 but had a record storm surge of 24-28 feet. It was a Cat. 5 but went under an eyewall replacement cycle, making it bigger and downgrading it to a Cat. 3. An example of precipitation could be Hurricane Harvey. Hurricane Harvey was not a Category 5, but had record precipitation with it, up to 60 recorded inches in some areas. But there are currently no hurricane scales that would account for all factors, so this scale is the best one we have.
