Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale
Escala de huracanes de Saffir-Simpson
- Date
- 1971-1973 · confidence high
- Place
- Coral Gables, Florida, United States
- Credited to
- Herbert Saffir and Robert Simpson
- Field
- Knowledge & symbols
What it is
A five-category scale that classifies hurricanes by maximum sustained wind speed, from 119 to over 252 km/h. Saffir devised it in 1969-1971 to describe damage to buildings and Simpson, director of the National Hurricane Center, adopted it with the winds around 1973.
The scale refers only to wind and not to storm surge or rain, which cause much of the loss of life; since 2010 it has been called the 'Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale' and since 2012 the limits have been given in knots and km/h.
What it led to
- public hurricane warnings by category
- evacuation plans and building codes for cyclones
- analogous scales for other oceans and for tornadoes