I've read somewhere recently (and always something I've sort of "known about"), that the Saffir-Simpson Scale is NOT 'linear'.

That is, for example, a Cat 4 is not 'just' 4 times as strong as a Cat 1.

Something like each Catagory is 5 times(!) as strong as the previous category, in terms of the 'wind loading' on structures, so that ...

Cat 2 = 5 times the wind loading force as a Cat 1 ...
Cat 3 = 25 times the wind loading force as a Cat 1 ...
Cat 4 = 125 times the wind loading force as a Cat 1 ...
Cat 5 = 625 times the wind loading force as a Cat 1 ...

Which helps to explain, in part, why a MAJOR Hurricane (Cat 3 and above) is *SO MUCH MORE* destructive that a 'sniggling' Cat 1.

Maybe the factor '5 times' is on the high side, but the concept stays the same, whatever the 'factor'.

I'd be really curious to find out exactly how all this works, from a technical standpoint.

Can anyone help me out here? Any links to technical articles? Thanks. I think I'll go try Google. Laters ...