NOAA's National Weather Service recently announced that it will use a new hurricane scale this season called the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale.
According to the NOAA Web site, the scale will keep the same wind speed speed ranges as the original Saffir-Simpson Scale for each of the five hurricane categories, but will no longer tie specific storm surge and flooding effects to each category.
NOAA sited Hurricane Ike in 2008 and Hurricane Charlie in 2004 as prime examples for the need for change. Ike was a large storm that made landfall on the upper Texas coast as a Category 2 hurricane with a peak storm surge of 15 to 20 feet, whereas Charlie struck southwest Florida as a Category 4 hurricane, but produced a peak storm surge of 6 to 7 feet.
Myvalleyweather Meteorologist Paul Wetzl said this new system makes sense.
"The main thing is the wind speeds are going to stay the same, but they're not going to tie specific storm surge and flood into the categories," Wetzl said. "Not a lot has changed."
