A new study from researchers at Colorado State University indicates that the minimum sea level pressure (MSLP) in a hurricane is the best measure of how much damage it can do, rather than than the maximum wind speed. The MSLP is a better indicator of the size of the storm than wind speed and is better correlated to deaths in storms for the 1900-2018 period. The study also showed the using MSLP instead of maximum wind speed would have increased the forecast of Michael becoming a category 5 hurricane from 39% based on winds to nearly 99% based on MSLP. You can read more in Physics Today at https://phys.org/news/2020-01-hurricane-experts-accurate.html.
