The longstanding hurricane rating system, the Saffir-Simpson Scale, only takes into account sustained wind speeds and not the ...

Let's break it down. Big Picture -What It Measures: As the name implies, the current version is strictly a wind scale that rates a hurricane's sustained winds (not gusts) from Category 1 through 5.

After rapidly growing to a Category 5 storm in the span of 24 hours, Hurricane Erin is now back to Category 3 on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. As of Sunday morning, the National Hurricane ...

At that point, the NHC uses the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale of intensity to categorize it on a scale of 1-5.

"The Saffir-Simpson scale is a measure of wind speed. But far more people die from hurricane flooding than from strong winds. Hurricane Florence made landfall near Wilmington as a Category 1 storm.

We've experienced the damage from hurricane winds first hand, so here's a look at how it's broken down. Chief Meteorologist Travis Herzog explains the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane wind scale.

But so far, it's been hard to switch because Americans, everyone knows that Saffir-Simpson scale. Everyone understands hurricane Category 1 through 5.

CATEGORY 1: It’s the first category that a hurricane can be labeled on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale. The winds for a “CAT 1” ranges from 74-95 mph.

Travelers on the Outer Banks should be aware of possible disruptions next week caused by Hurricane Erin as it intensified into a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale overnight, ...