We need a new Hurricane scale

[paul e]

The one we have covers wind strength, and attendant characteristics and damage.

But would anybody here say that a cat 3 storm which hits an area for 2 hrs would produce the same damage as a cat 3 storm which rakes an area for 30 hrs? Is there an equivalence which can be drawn between, say, a 24 hr cat 2 storm, with a 3 hr cat 3 storm? Would the damage be similar? I dont know; but I bet there are those that do, and they should put together an alternate scale, taking longevity into account.

[Cookiely]

I can't remember one going this slow.

[Stormchaser16]

Perhaps we need to rank hurricanes in the way we rank tornadoes? By the damage they do.....

[paul e]

>>Perhaps we need to rank hurricanes in the way we rank tornadoes? By the damage they do.....<<

I think thats what we do have, currently. With tornados, like hurricanes, the ranking categories include wind speed, generalized damage done, etc. What I think needs to be done, which Frances makes so evident, is to add a time component.

[cswitwer]

I had this discussion with Alexiblue the other day, and she pointed out that it would be really hard to do a damage scale for hurricanes because so much of the damage depends on building construction, preparedness by residents and officials, tides, geography, age of buildings... like in Andrew when all those 1980's houses fell apart like matchstick houses.

I have an uncle in Homestead who build his house "hurricane-proof" and he ended up being the only house on his block that was still standing afterwards. The damage to his house was more determined by the way the house was made than it was on the strength of the storm.

I would like to see a damage scale used instead, but the logistics of determining damage will be very difficult. But we're smart animals, we can probably figure it out somehow!

[Stormchaser16]

Thats how it works now? I thought they were just based solely on wind speeds....... Im talking general damage including, rainfall, surge, etc......

[x-y-no]

Well my proposal the other day just earned me a locked thread. OK, I did present it in a humorous manner, but it really was a serious proposal to include size of circulation in the classification of storms. As suggested here, speed of movement might be a valuable parameter too.

[Stormsfury]

Thats how it works now? I thought they were just based solely on wind speeds....... Im talking general damage including, rainfall, surge, etc......

Right now, it's wind speed.

But there were proposals on the table about reclassifying TC's with rainfall amounts, storm surge, etc ... I can't remember but it involved a broader CAT scale ...

SF