Gale-force winds of death battered the continuance of Herbert Saffir, inventor of the hurricane warning scale, leaving a trail of existential destruction in their wake. He was 90.
Saffir was a structural engineer living in South Florida when he improved on the existing system for hurricane warnings. From the AP:
Before the scale, hurricanes were simply described as major or minor. Mr. Saffir’s innovation was ranking storm destruction by type, from Category 1, in which trees and unanchored mobile homes receive the primary damage, to Category 5, which involves the complete failure of roofs and some structures. The five descriptions of destruction were then matched with the sustained wind speeds that would produce the corresponding damage.
Fascinating.
Left out of the AP’s obituary is Saffir’s invention of the Four Tops, the Five People you Meet in Heaven, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, and the 50 Ways to Leave your Lover.
Also, the AP reports that the cause of death was “complications from surgery,” though Pax Arcana’s spies say Saffir died midway through the greatest round of his life, his 5-iron aloft, shouting “Rat farts!”
