A long time ago I made a thread in the hurricane ask/tell section attempting to invalidate the Saffir Simpson scale. I find this debate really interesting. Pressure is the only thing we can realistically measure, but the variability inherent between it and wind speed is painfully large.

It becomes even more perplexing when you consider that the categories are based on what damage will occur in the event the storm makes landfall. Only problem is, depending on where the storm hits, this damage will vary greatly! For example, my neighborhood could probably survive a nuclear bomb blast in light of our rigorous building codes and recent ‘cleansing’ per hurricane charley. Likewise, since my home didn’t suffer ‘catastrophic damage’ with Andrew, does that mean that I did not experience a category 4/5 (or whatever they are calling him these days)?

In the end though, all this quibbling just makes me appreciate those vintage NW pacific monsters even more.

Just to throw something loosely related out there… I sorta think that Emily may have briefly been a ‘minimal’ category five for a few hours, which if true would make this season’s record of such storms infact four… not three.