Journal #5 - Where I Stand

So, where am I to go with my project? Well, so far, I seem to have gotten the impression from my e-mails (and from my personal thoughts beforehand) that ignoring storm size when trying to assess cyclone energy is a poor idea. However, the reason that storm size has been ignored in tropical cyclone energy calculations for so many years is not due to a lack of interest, but rather due to a lack of information. Usually, the only data available about hurricanes was the maximum wind speed. However, now that technologies are significantly more advanced, we are able to capture the wind radii of a tropical system to a somewhat accurate estimate. Because we are now collecting more data on hurricanes, it can be put to good use as a measure of overall cyclone intensity. The only thing holding us back is the old customs from a time when we had less data. What does this mean? I’m still on the same track I was before (so far). Nothing has changed my mind about the inclusion of storm size into Saffir-Simpson or ACE; everything has indicated that the inclusion of storm size would be beneficial in making the findings for Accumulated Cyclone Energy more accurate. The only remaining question is a how – what would be the best way to include storm size? Should only hurricane force wind radii be included? 50 knots? 34 knots? These are questions I will have to further investigate, and hopefully get some more answers on.