And what Category would you rate Katrina at if you based it on Pressure?
Hint, Hint...
Its minimum pressure at its second landfall was 920 mbar (27 inHg), making Katrina the third-strongest hurricane on record to make landfall on the United States, behind Hurricane Camille’s 900-millibar (27 inHg) reading in 1969, and the 1935 Labor Day Hurricane’s 892-millibar (26.3 inHg) record.
Katrina made its second landfall at 6:10 a.m. CDT on August 29 as a Category 3 hurricane with sustained winds of 125 miles per hour (201 km/h) near Buras-Triumph, Louisiana. Because Katrina had just weakened from Category 4 and due to the shape of the coastline, sustained Category 4 winds likely existed on land while the eye was over water. At landfall, hurricane-force winds extended 120 miles (190 kilometres) from the center, the storm’s pressure was 920 millibars (27 inches of mercury), and its forward speed was 15 mph (24 km/h). As it made its way up the eastern Louisiana coastline, most communities in Plaquemines, St. Bernard Parish, and Slidell in St. Tammany Parish were severely damaged by storm surge and the strong winds of the eyewall, which also grazed eastern New Orleans, causing in excess of $1 billion worth of damage to the city (see Effect of Hurricane Katrina on New Orleans).
Yep, at the time I was a consultant working at the City of N. O. Katrina hit about 3 weeks after I started my contract. End up working on that contract for 11 years. Just recently went back there on a new contract.