Why are there Two Hurricane Models, the European Model and the American Model when physics and statistics are the same everywhere?

Question

Why are there Two Hurricane Models, the European Model and the American Model when physics and statistics are the same everywhere?

In: 293

Answer 1

Because the word “physics” is a bit ambiguous. Sometimes it refers to the activity of the physical universe (which is always the same everywhere) and sometimes it refers to the *scientific study* of the physical universe. Theoretically, an infinite number of different “models” (mathematical methods and sets of statistics) can be used to describe/predict what happens in the same physical universe. When dealing with very complex (chaotic and only partially understood) systems like weather events, the more models, the better, and we can use whether (pun not intended but implicit) multiple models predict the same results as an indication of the reliability of the prediction.