 une 1 marks the start of the six-month hurricane season and 30 years that the Saffir/Simpson Scale has been used to categorize Atlantic hurricanes on a scale of 1 to 5. The scale is a chart that uses wind speed, storm surge and potential damage of hurricanes. It is named for the two men who developed it — a structural engineer and a meteorologist.
| | Hurricane category | | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | | Wind speed (miles/hour) | 74-95 | 96-
110 | 111-
130 | 131-155 | More than 155 | | Storm surge (feet) | 4-5 | 6-8 | 9-12 | 13-18 | More than 18 | | Damage | Minimal | Moderate | Extensive | Extreme | Catastrophic | Herbert S. Saffir was born in New York City and attended Georgia Tech. Graduating with a structural engineering degree, he landed a job as assistant county engineer for Dade County, Fla., in 1947. In his first two months on the job, he experienced two hurricanes and saw firsthand the devastation by hurricanes on homes and businesses. First scale
In 1969, the United Nations hired Saffir to study storm damage on low-income housing. From this study, he developed a scale to measure wind speed and the damage potential of a hurricane. From his studies of satellite information, he discovered that he could get information to define and communicate damage potential. Robert Simpson was born in the Corpus Christi area and survived the 1919 hurricane that devastated that city. This experience had an impact on the life of young Simpson, who chose a career in meteorology with the National Weather Service. He eventually became the head of the National Hurricane Center from 1967 to 1975. Throughout his career, Simpson saw a need to communicate a hurricane's strength and potential in a consistent manner so that agencies like the American Red Cross and Federal Emergency Management Agency could prepare adequately. He, too, developed a scale, one that categorized storms by their central pressure, measured in millibars, and storm surge, measured in feet.  | | Courtesy USA Today | | Click image to see full-size graphic illustrating the effects of hurricanes of increasing intensity. | New, improved scale
In the late 1960s the two men combined their scales to form the Saffir/Simpson Scale, which categorizes hurricanes on a scale of 1 to 5 based on wind speed and storm surge. The scale has saved many lives in the 30 years in which it has helped emergency-operations officials plan appropriate measures to warn and evacuate the public. According to the National Hurricane Center, 35 major hurricanes have hit the Texas Gulf Coast since 1900. Seven of these hurricanes have been classified as category 4 or greater.  Visit the National Hurricane Center's Hurricane Preparedness Web site to learn how you can prepare for the hurricane season. Melinda Luna is an engineer at LCRA. Write her at melinda.luna@lcra.org. |
