A strong hurricane is headed toward DC and this year is the 10th anniversary of Katrina. AES Professor Lakshmi Kantha has been doing (unfunded, curiosity-driven) research on ways to improve assessing the danger of hurricanes.
Read more here:
Time to Replace the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale?
Classification of hurricanes: Lessons from Katrina, Ike, Irene, Isaac and Sandy