The OP would like the system of storm warnings used in the Philippines. The “storm signals” range from signal #1, which means twigs and branches may be broken, to signal #4, which means batten down the hatches and head for the hills. The typhoon itself isn’t directly rated, but rather its effect on the countryside. A howler like Rita would raise signal #4, regardless of whether it’s category 3, 4, or 5, in areas which the storm passes directly over. Areas further away get signal #3, then #2, then #1.
“How many amps are there?”
“Enough to push a train.”
We couldn’t use that scale here.
How so? Seems more nuanced than the simple hurricane watch/warning system or the misleading Saffir-Simpson scale.
UPDATE:
The thread has been downgraded to Category 1 thread now, and will continue to weaken as a MPSIMS in the next 6-8 hours. Sustained posting speed is decreasing, and the brain power totals will be smaller but more widespread. Dopers should evacuate to higher OPs and seek shelter away from low lying OPs.
YR, NSDMBTR Whore
1:20PM PDT
Fox News is now reporting that Rita has been downgraded again to a flaccid category 3.
The good news is that they’re now saying the storm is going to miss all those oil refineries. The bad news is that Galveston is going to get swamped regardless.
Actually, the National Hurricane Center has graphics showing just about that (though they are labled “experimental” at this point. Each of the storms listed has maps showing color-coded “Hurricane Wind Probabilities”, “50 knot Wind Probabilities”, and “Tropical Storm Wind Probabilities.”
In other words, you you can check your location to see that you a 60 percent chance of Oh Crap, a 30 percent chance of Oh Shit, and a 10 percent chance of HOLY SWEET MOTHER OF FUCK.
I like your scale much better. More to the point.
While we’re pitting the Saffir-Simpson Hurrican Scale, can we pit fahrenheit and celsius, neither of which are satisfactory, IMO.
I personally cannot tell the difference between 82 and 85 degrees F. Nor can I tell much difference between 95 and 100. Even celsius is too broad. I nominate the Lisa scale:
Freezing = This is the temp that’ll make the snot freeze in your nostrils.
Cold = Hot cocoa and bonfires were made for these temps. And football.
Mild = Throw your windows open during the day kind of weather.
Warm = Shorts weather
Hot = This is the temp where you’re so uncomfortable that someone’s knee touching yours is too much contact
All the people I work with are now sitting around saying “Oh, thank goodness it’s dropped to a Category 3!!” One even said, “It’s ONLY Cat 3”
Trying to fight ignorance, I commented, “125 MPH winds is a very strong storm.”
To which they replied “Well, that’s better than 175 MPH winds!”
Must. Resist. Urge. To. Bash. In. Heads.
:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:
Is that, like, a catagory 1.5 bitch?
Well, it is. A 175 MPH wind has nearly twice the destructive power as a 125 MPH wind (175^2 / 125^2 = 1.96). 
Yet, somehow, the storms packing 125 mph winds do about 70-80% as much damage. 
One important factor missing in a Saffir-Simpson rating is the size of the storm and the resulting length of time the wind travels over the water, raising the surf.
A very large, widely spread Cat 4 that has been a Cat 4 for days and comes ashore can bring bigger storm surge and more rain that a compact tightly formed Cat 5 that has been a Cat 5.
The water is sometimes affected more by how long a distance the wind blows across it – not just how fast the wind is blowing. A good Ol’ Nor’Easter is capable of monstrous seas that are higher than a Cat 4 storm because Nor’Easter can get incredibly big and wide, with winds blowing across the sea for many hundreds of miles.
The Saffir-Simpson scale over emphasizes winds, when rainfail and tidal surge are the real forces.
Shoving the Category crap down everyone’s throat is just like telling about 1/4 of the whole story.
And I suspect there’s a lot of people in lower Terrebonne and Jefferson Parishes who would fervently agree with you today. They barely saw Cat 1 winds, and yet are eight feet or more underwater tonight.
Damn, that’s good.
Sometimes business reporters get it right:
Nice and concise setting of context, IMHO. (YMMV).
We didn’t get anywhere near Cat 1 winds and we had flooding. Problem is the winds were constant for at least two days. The water just kept rising in Barataria Bay south of Jefferson and around New Orleans until the flooding happened.
The scale works on the basis of letting you decide between “get the fuck out of town” or “I should buy supplies, board up and expect no power for a day or two”. Cindy, an early season tropical storm knocked out our power for two days. It was worse than expected, verging on a Cat one hurricane but tolerable. Katrina, well, everyone knows about that. I know that a slow moving high cat two or even one is much worse for my area than a fast moving mid range cat three. One is going to overwhelm the pumps and bring plenty of flooding while the other is going to knock out my lights and down some trees but we should be ok with the water. Speed at landfall is very important, second only to windspeed of the storm. The direction it is travelling when it impacts the coast is probably third. The talking heads on the networks may harp on the scale but those of us in the path pay a hell of a lot more attention to details than people who are not going to be hit by the storm.
Ask anyone who lived in Southern Louisiana during Hurricane Juan and it quickly becomes apparent how much a slow moving storm can cause havoc. The bastard,a weak cat one, just kept moving along the coast bringing flooding to the entire area. We volunteered to sandbag a flooded area and did so through the night till the national guard pulled our group out. It simple wasn’t possible to stop the flooding in the area. We got less damage from stronger storms which moved over the area quickly.
Damn hot = winter in Florida
Fucking hot = Summer in Florida (anything above 92F)
Oh, and…
It ain’t the heat… it’s the stupidity
As a transplanted Oklahoman now living in south Louisiana, and having experienced three hurricanes now (Lily, Katrina, and Rita) I appreciate and agree with everything said so far. That said, here are the things I’ve learned:
[ol]
[li]I’d rather be 30 miles west of the eye than 60 miles to the east.[/li][li]Don’t try to sit through anything more than a Category 2 hurricane if you can help it. It’s not worth it.[/li][li]120 mph winds seems a helluva lot faster than 90 mph winds.[/li][li]I’ve had a tornado go through my neighborhood. I much prefer the tornado. [/li][li]Sandbags are just as important as candles.[/li][li]Don’t live on the coast.[/li][/ol]
Just my personal list. I’m sure I still have a lot to learn.
From a friend who saw catagory-4 Hurricane Fabian in Bermuda: “Live somewhere that they build the houses out of big lumps of rock”. The storm managed to kill four people - two policemen, and the women they were escorting across a causeway. Other than that, everyone (a) took the warnings seriously, and (b) were in a position to protect themselves.