Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff from How Stuff Works. Hey, brain Stuff,
Speaker 1: it's Christian Sager here. When hurricane season arrives each year
Speaker 1: on June one, phrases such as storm surge, wind speed,
Speaker 1: and eyewall suddenly become part of the summer lexicon in
Speaker 1: the United States. But probably the most important words to
Speaker 1: know about a hurricane are those that describe its power,
Speaker 1: and those include whether it's a category one or a
Speaker 1: category five. The variance between the strengths of these two
Speaker 1: storms could mean the difference between life and death. Now,
Speaker 1: meteorologists rank hurricanes from one to five based on the
Speaker 1: Saffer Simpson scale. The scale is a yardstick that takes
Speaker 1: into account a hurricane's wind speed, storm surge, and air pressure,
Speaker 1: and the scale begins with a category one, the least
Speaker 1: powerful and dangerous hurricane, and then it moves towards its
Speaker 1: climax at Category five, the most catastrophic. As the storm
Speaker 1: pushes across the ocean, it gathers speed and strength. Low
Speaker 1: air pressure forces ocean water into a huge mound near
Speaker 1: the eye, which could create a devastating storm surge. When
Speaker 1: the wall of water reaches land. The more heat and
Speaker 1: moisture hurricane consumes, the more powerful the storm becomes. That's
Speaker 1: where the Saffer Simpson scale comes in. The scale was
Speaker 1: created when Robert H. Simpson was director of the National
Speaker 1: Hurricane Center in nineteen sixty nine, during the time Hurricane
Speaker 1: Camille blew through the Caribbean and into the warm waters
Speaker 1: of the Gulf of Mexico. Its winds were clocked at
Speaker 1: a hundred and ninety miles per hour or three hundred
Speaker 1: and six kilometers per hour as it struck Mississippi, and
Speaker 1: the official death poll from wind storm surge in rain
Speaker 1: was two hundred and fifty six people. In nineteen seventy one,
Speaker 1: Herbert S. Saffer was working as an engineer in Florida
Speaker 1: preparing a report for the United Nations on building codes
Speaker 1: that could withstand the onslaught of high speed winds. He
Speaker 1: eventually came up with a table that outlined the damage
Speaker 1: to buildings wind can cause at various speeds. He worked
Speaker 1: up five categories of hurricanes based on damage each one
Speaker 1: could cause. In nineteen seventy two, Simpson took Saffers numbers
Speaker 1: and correlated them with storm surge estimates and barometric pressure.
Speaker 1: The result was the Saffer Simpson Scale by nineteen seventy five,
Speaker 1: the Saffer Simpson scale was in widespread use local, state,
Speaker 1: and federal officials, not to mention, the public at large
Speaker 1: now had an easy to read and understand chart that
Speaker 1: outlined a hurricanes impact. While the Saffer Simpson scale is
Speaker 1: a good measuring tool, it doesn't really tell the full
Speaker 1: story of a hurricanes impact. Hurricanes pack a lot of
Speaker 1: connectic and energy, and as a byproduct, a hurricane's power
Speaker 1: increases exponentially from one category to the next as wind
Speaker 1: speed increases. A Category five hurricane, for example, is five
Speaker 1: hundred times more powerful than a Category one. How does
Speaker 1: this relate to property damage Compared to a Category one?
Speaker 1: A Category to hurricane can generate seven times the amount
Speaker 1: of damage, while a Category five storm can generate a
Speaker 1: hundred and forty four times the amount of destruction. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was written by John Paritano and produced by Dylan Fagan.
Speaker 1: For more on this and other topics, please visit us
Speaker 1: at how stuff works dot com. Today's episode was written
Speaker 1: by Jescelyn Shields, produced by Dylan Fagan, and For more
Speaker 1: on this and other topics, please visit us at how
Speaker 1: stuff works dot com.