EXACTLY
I’ve been trying to get people to understand this and the danger in promoting inflated numbers which could result in the populace underestimating a future storm that does have 120+ mph winds... but at ground level, like Andrew.
So what do they use to determine the Category then, ground winds or winds at 10,000 feet? And is it so normal for there to be a disparity between the two?
Makes sense—this hurricane’s main threat was storm surge—but of course that can do an incredible amount of damage in its own right.