Hurricane Dorian is headed towards the East Coast of Florida and is expected to hit this Labor Day Weekend. The storm which was originally a tropical storm has magnified in intensity and is now a Category 3 Hurricane. Some weather forecasters predict that the hurricane will intensify to a Category 4 by the time it hits Florida this weekend. Many residents are extremely nervous and some are even preparing for a potential evacuation. Governor Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency for the whole state of Florida. 2,000 Florida National Guard members have been activated in response to the threat the Hurricane presents.
According to the Saffir–Simpson scale which classifies storms in terms of intensity the following table(from wikipedia) shows what determining factors make up the different levels of intensity of hurricanes and tropical depressions:
Category Type | Miles Per Hour | Kilometers per hour |
Five | ≥ 157 mph | ≥ 252 km/h |
Four | 130–156 mph | 209–251 km/h |
Three | 111–129 mph | 178–208 km/h |
Two | 96–110 mph | 154–177 km/h |
One | 74–95 mph | 119–153 km/h |
Tropical storm | 39–73 mph | 63–118 km/h |
Tropical depression | ≤ 38 mph | ≤ 62 km/h |