Today's weather trivia question was "Winds need to exceed _____ mph to be a category 5 hurricane."
The possible answers were:
A. 150 MPH
B. 180 MPH
C. 157 MPH
D. 120 MPH
The answer is 157 MPH! This is based on the Saffir Simpson Scale, which measures the strength of a hurricane based on its wind!
Fun fact: The highest winds ever recorded in a hurricane occurred in 2015 in the eye wall of Hurricane Patricia! Winds reached a whopping 215 mph! Wow!
The scale was developed in the early 1970s by civil engineer Herbert Saffir and meteorologist Robert Simpson, who was then the director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC).
This scale is used in order to describe the likely effects of a hurricane based on its intensity.
