Not all hurricanes are the same

Hurricanes Ian and Charley, same power, both radically different damage

The massive 40 mile wide eye of Hurricane Ian just before making landfall north of Sanibel Island.

Not all hurricanes are the same, and the point has never been more clear with the unfortunate examples of two hurricanes with nearly the same intensity and windspeed but completely different catastrophic damages.

Hurricane Ian and Hurricane Charley made landfall in the exact same spot at Cayo Costa in Southwest Florida as Category 4 hurricanes. Charly was a wind machine that carried its 150 mph winds will inland with hurricane force blows into Orlando. The wind in Hurricane Ian didn’t reach as far but the storm surge swelled along with the death toll.

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Larger Hurricane Ian compared to Hurricane Charley in 2004. Both storms made landfall in the same location but Ian was over twice the size and had a bigger eye.

When Hurricane Charley hit the area in 2004, it left behind a compact storm surge between 6 to 7 feet on Sanibel and Estero islands. Ian’s unofficial surge estimates are as much as 12 feet.

Ian’s more significant storm surge was many times larger because it was twice the size and moved slower. The difference in scale is reflected in the awful number of casualties. Ten direct fatalities in the U.S. are associated with Charley while the lives lost in Ian are over 100 and counting.

Water kills more people than wind.

The wind damage from Hurricane Charley was compact due to its small 12- to 20-mile-wide field of hurricane winds compared to Ian’s 45-mile swath of winds blowing higher than 74 mph just before landfall. Sustained tropical storm force winds covered the area from Tampa Bay to the Keys, including near hurricane force gusts that eventually spread to Jacksonville.

Bigger storms produce more immense storm surges. The size of a storm and its angle and rate of motion to the coast determines how large the storm surge may reach.

Because Ian moved at a painfully slow 9 mph before landfall, the surge had plenty of time to pile up along the shallow coastline compared to Charley which moved at a faster 20 mph landfall speed.

People are familiar with the wind rating system for hurricanes called the Saffir-Simpson scale which Cateorrizes hurricanes from 1 to 5 but it is inadequate for describing storm surge risk.

As storms get more powerful in the future it is important for people to consider not just the winds but also the deadly impacts from storm surges and the reality that 90% of hurricane deaths are caused by water and not wind.


About the Author:

After covering the weather from every corner of Florida and doing marine research in the Gulf, Mark Collins settled in Jacksonville to forecast weather for The First Coast.