• JackLSauce@lemmy.world
    21·
    2 months ago

    Not sure what the science is between 2 images with no source or timestamp and nearly 20 years of technological improvement between them is but this isn’t the peak of Katrina

    Katrina ultimately reached its peak strength as a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir–Simpson scale on August 28. Its maximum sustained winds reached 175 mph (280 km/h) and its pressure fell to 902 mbar (hPa; 26.63 inHg), ranking it among the strongest ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico.

    It probably refers to its stats at landfall

    Katrina weakened to a Category 3 before making landfall along the northern Gulf Coast, first in southeast Louisiana (sustained winds: 125mph) and then made landfall once more along the Mississippi Gulf Coast (sustained winds: 120mph). Katrina finally weakened below hurricane intensity late on August 29th over east central Mississippi.

    But power doesn’t equal damage for weather

    [Katrina] is the costliest hurricane to ever hit the United States, surpassing the record previously held by Hurricane Andrew from 1992. In addition, Katrina is one of the five deadliest hurricanes to ever strike the United States

    Sources:

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meteorological_history_of_Hurricane_Katrina

    https://www.weather.gov/mob/katrina

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.worldOP
      126·
      2 months ago

      But power doesn’t equal damage for weather

      Only if you count what happened in New Orleans after the storm, which was an infrastructure issue, not a weather issue.

          • thoro@lemmy.ml
            54·
            2 months ago

            What is the point of comparing Helene to Katrina? Harvey was also a 4.

            Why discount the impact of Katrina just because there were systematic issues? It was a natural disaster and that was the impact.

            Because it comes off to me like you’re trying to “well ackshully” about Helene being really the most devastating hurricane.