Guest: Dr. Jennifer Collins & Dr. Nadia Bloemendaal

When it comes to hurricanes, we often rely on a familiar scale to understand their strength — categories based largely on wind speed. But anyone who’s experienced a storm knows that impacts go far beyond just how fast the winds are blowing. Today, we’re joined by Jennifer Collins and Nadia Bloemendaal, whose work is helping to rethink how we model and measure tropical cyclones. They’re the minds behind the STORM model, a powerful tool for simulating thousands of storms across the globe, and the developers of the Tropical Cyclone Severity Scale — a new way of looking at storm risk that goes beyond traditional categories. In this episode, we’ll explore how large-scale modeling is changing our understanding of hurricane risk, why current classification systems may fall short, and how new approaches could improve the way we communicate danger and prepare for future storms.

Chapters

1. 00:00 Introduction to the New Storm Model
2. 00:20 The Storm Model's Impact on Various Sectors
3. 01:02 Challenges in Developing a Global Storm Model
4. 02:21 Modeling Hazards Beyond Wind: Rain and Surge
5. 04:31 Motivation for a New Hurricane Severity Scale
6. 06:42 Limitations of the Wind-Only Scale
7. 08:35 The New Scale: Incorporating Multiple Hazards
8. 10:27 Break 1
9. 11:28 The Concept of a Category 6 Storm
10. 13:05 Public Perception and Education Strategies
11. 15:22 Localized and Personalized Risk Communication
12. 17:27 Real-World Applications and Case Studies
13. 19:20 Future Directions and Climate Change Impacts
14. 21:54 Inertia and Adoption Challenges in Meteorology
15. 23:49 Break 2
16. 25:00 Public Perception of Storm Categories
17. 27:33 The Path Toward Standardization and Adoption
18. 30:12 Future Collaborations and Final Thoughts

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