OK, I may be being snarky, but what is an "average" hurricane? Do you mean the mean, the median, or the mode?
The Saffir-Simpson scale goes from Cat 1 to Cat 5. The middle is, ipso facto, cat 3. Which is what Katrina was when it hit land.
Being big and scary out at sea -- if so, a lot of hurricanes qualify for that.
From a source you cited earlier:
1935 Labor Day hurricane hit Florida Keys cat 5 1944 Great hurricane Cat 5 winds 165 at sea hit VA as strong cat 4 (winds 150 mph) 1950 Hurricane King hit Miami strong cat 4 (winds 150 mph) storm surge 19.3 ft. 1954 Hazel hit North Carolina cat 4 1966 Inez hit many places, killed 1900, cat 4 1967 Beulah hit Texas cat 4 1969 Camille hit Gulf Coast cat 5 1979 David hit Caribbean islands cat 5 1988 Gilbert hit Yucatan cat 5 1989 Hugo cat 5 in Caribbean, hit North Carolina cat 4 1992 Andrew hit South Florida cat 5 1999 Lenny hit Lesser Antilles strong cat 4 (winds 150 mph) 1999 Mitch hit Honduras cat 5 2003 Isabel cat 5 at sea (winds 234 mph), but hit North Carolina as cat 2 2004 Ivan cat 5 at sea, hit Alabama as cat 3 2005 three cat 5s at sea, (Emily, Katrina, Rita) none cat 5 when they hit land hurricaneville.com |