What name is given to the scale that classifies hurricane intensity?

The scale that classifies hurricane intensity is the Saffir-Simpson scale. It ranks hurricanes from Category 1 to Category 5 according to their maximum sustained winds, measured over one minute at 10 metres above the surface.

Meteorologist Herbert Saffir and engineer Robert Simpson developed the system in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Saffir focused on how wind damages buildings, while Simpson, then director of the U.S. National Hurricane Center, helped adapt the system for operational forecasting. The scale was publicly introduced in 1975.

A common mix-up is assuming that the scale measures every type of hurricane danger. Since 2010, its categories have been based only on wind speed; storm surge, rainfall, flooding, storm size and forward speed are not included. The least intense hurricane is Category 1, while Category 5 begins at sustained winds of 157 mph (252 km/h). Category 3 and above are called major hurricanes in the Atlantic and eastern and central Pacific.