Herbert Seymour Saffir (29 March 1917 – 21 November 2007) (
) was an American civil engineer who co-developed (with meteorologist
Robert Simpson) the
Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale for measuring the intensity of hurricanes. As recently as 2005 Saffir was the principal of Saffir Engineering in
Coral Gables, Florida
Coral Gables, officially City of Coral Gables, is a city in Miami-Dade County, Florida. The city is located southwest of Downtown Miami. As of the 2020 U.S. census, it had a population of 49,248.
Coral Gables is known globally as home to the ...
. He also published articles on designing buildings for high wind resistance.
Education and early career
Originally from
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, Saffir graduated from the
Georgia Institute of Technology in 1940 with a B.S. in
civil engineering
Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...
. Saffir worked for
Dade County, Florida
Miami-Dade County is a county located in the southeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. The county had a population of 2,701,767 as of the 2020 census, making it the most populous county in Florida and the seventh-most populous county in ...
beginning in 1947 as an assistant county engineer, and worked on updating the county
building code
A building code (also building control or building regulations) is a set of rules that specify the standards for constructed objects such as buildings and non-building structures. Buildings must conform to the code to obtain planning permiss ...
. Since that time, he had traveled extensively to study windstorm damage for clues to improvements and has been a tireless advocate for stricter codes in hurricane-prone areas.
Later career
In 1975 Saffir was working on a study of windstorm damage on low-cost housing commissioned by the
United Nations
The United Nations (UN) is an intergovernmental organization whose stated purposes are to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmoniz ...
(UN), Saffir developed a scale to categorize the intensity of hurricanes by their maximum
wind speed
In meteorology, wind speed, or wind flow speed, is a fundamental atmospheric quantity caused by air moving from high to low pressure, usually due to changes in temperature. Wind speed is now commonly measured with an anemometer.
Wind speed ...
. In 1969, his friend Bob Simpson, then-director of the
National Hurricane Center (NHC), added information on the potential
storm surge and range of central
pressures for each category, resulting in what later became known as the Saffir–Simpson Hurricane Scale.
Saffir survived the burning of the cruise ship on 8 September 1934. The ship was en route from Havana to New York when it caught fire and burned, killing a total of 137 passengers and crew members.
On 21 November 2007 Herbert Saffir died of a heart attack at South Miami Hospital in
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a coastal metropolis and the county seat of Miami-Dade County in South Florida, United States. With a population of 442,241 at ...
according to his son, Richard Saffir. He was 90 years old.
Herbert Saffir, 90; Hurricane Scale Creator
/ref>
See also
* Hurricane engineering
Hurricane engineering is a specialist sub-discipline of civil engineering that encompasses planning, analysis, design, response, and recovery of civil engineering systems and infrastructure for hurricane hazards. Hurricane engineering is a rela ...
* Structural engineering
Structural engineering is a sub-discipline of civil engineering in which structural engineers are trained to design the 'bones and muscles' that create the form and shape of man-made structures. Structural engineers also must understand and cal ...
* Wind engineering
References
External links
Obituary in ''The Times'', 29 November 2007
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saffir, Herbert
1917 births
2007 deaths
Georgia Tech alumni
People from Brooklyn
American civil engineers
Engineers from New York City
20th-century American engineers