Using Z-Scores to Quantify Multiple Hurricane Hazards

Music City Center 

The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale (SSHWS) sometimes falls short of accurately communicating the hazards associated with a hurricane. While some have proposed that a "Category 6" be added to this scale, we argue that a panel of z-scores -- among the simplest of statistics -- should be used instead. The hazards we assessed in our demonstration were wind speed (which is the only one measured by the SSHWS), storm surge, rainfall, and tornado occurrence. We examine four storms, each of a different SSHWS category, that are well-known for a specific hazard they presented. We show that our multivariate hazard assessment highlights those hazards, providing a portrait of the storms that is more comprehensive than the SSHWS.

z-score

Chebyshev's rule

Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale

hurricane hazards 

Section on Statistics and the Environment