Breaking news out of Florida this morning:

All content on this website is © Copyright 2000-2010 - All Rights Reserved The content on this site may not be reused or republished. Website template powered by VooWeb.com Website Templates

In a move to foster improved relations between the meteorological community and the news industry, the National Hurricane Center announced today that it is lowering the requirements for a storm to be officially named as a hurricane. The previous standard was sustained winds of 74 miles-per-hour, but the recent brush with Ernesto, and subsequent inability of reporters to say the word “hurricane” in conjunction with every reference to Ernesto, began to cause some friction between the two groups. “It was very frustrating, having to watch my colleagues in the field use the term ‘tropical storm’ when referring to Ernesto, when it had once carried the formal title of ‘hurricane,’” said news anchor Troy McDonald of station WECT in Wilmington, NC. Other news industry leaders echoed his concern, with John Zarella of CNN pleading with Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center, to do something that would enable reporters to use the word “hurricane” in as many situations as possible.
After a two-day summit between the two communities at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Jacksonville, Florida, Mayfield announced that the new criteria for a Category One hurricane would include sustained winds of only 25 miles-per-hour, and storm-surge levels of only six inches. In a prepared statement, Mayfield expressed confidence that the revised standards would not only enable the news industry to use flashier graphics more often and increase Nielsen ratings, but would also allow the National Hurricane Center to take a more active role in educating the public about the dangers of powerful storms.
In addition to the new standards, NHC officials stated that they would immediately begin revising historical records in order to retroactively upgrade older storms. According to the updated Saffir-Simpson scale, Hurricanes Camille and Andrew, which once ranked as Category 5, will now be classified as Category 17, the highest designation on the new scale.