The Hurricane Wind Scale: What It Means And What It Doesn’t

Hurricanes have been rated from one to five for decades, but this scale has some flaws. The scale is limited to rating just maximum sustained winds within a storm. This means it doesn’t include winds from most regions of a storm. It also doesn’t include other threats like storm surge, rainfall or tornadoes. Water tends to make up the vast majority of hurricane-related fatalities and this wind scale does not currently indicate how much of a threat water is. This scale also does not include tropical storms, which can be extraordinarily expensive and can also be dangerous.