Patent ID: 7970543

Claim:
A method for determining the severity of a tropical storm selected from the group consisting of hurricanes and typhoons, according to a combined Wind Destructive Potential (WDP) Scale and a Storm Surge Destructive Potential (SDP) Scale, (otherwise jointly known as the Powell/Reinhold Scale), wherein said WDP relating to structural and loading and the non-linear nature of wind damage to residential structures; said SDP relating to the process through which wind forces, storm surge and waves create damage; said method comprising: obtaining a surface wind field; computing, with the aid of a computer, an integrated kinetic energy (IKE), in Tera Joules, (TJ), from the surface wind field by integrating 10-m-level kinetic energy per unit volume of portions of a storm domain volume (V) containing sustained surface wind speeds (U) satisfying equation (1): IKE=∫ V ½ ρU 2 dV (1) wherein ρ represents air density of 1 kg/m 3 ; and, computing, with the aid of a computer, the SDP according to formula (4): SDP= 0.676+0.43√{square root over ( IKE TS )}−0.0176(√{square root over ( IKE TS )}−6.5) 2 (4) wherein IKE TS represents the integrated kinetic energy of (tropical storm) winds greater than 33 m/sec.