SOUTH FLORIDA — Researchers in South Florida are proposing an 'Enhanced Hurricane Scale' that would rate hurricanes based on wind speed, storm surge, and rainfall impacts. The current Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, developed in the early 1970s by engineer Herbert Saffir and National Hurricane Center director Robert Simpson, categorizes hurricanes from Category 1 to Category 5 based solely on wind speed.
The existing scale does not account for storm surge, inland flooding, or rainfall, even though storm surge is the deadliest part of a hurricane. The proposed Enhanced Hurricane Scale aims to address this limitation by incorporating multiple hazards into a single rating, modeled after the Enhanced Fujita Scale used for tornadoes.
Hurricane Harvey illustrates the shortcomings of the current system. It made landfall near Corpus Christi as a Category 4 hurricane, but by the time it stalled over Southeast Texas, its wind speeds had weakened significantly and it was no longer classified as a hurricane in Houston. Despite the drop in wind intensity, historic flooding devastated Houston due to extreme rainfall.
Under the proposed enhanced scale, which focuses on total impact rather than wind alone, Hurricane Harvey would have been categorized as a Category 5 in Houston before landfall. Rainfall and storm surge impacts can vary dramatically from one location to another depending on a storm’s track and movement, complicating uniform classification. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is not currently considering changing the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, despite the new proposal.