Catastrophic Overuse

Is it possible that the media is tending to excessively use the terms catastrophe and catastrophic in described major weather events such as Hurricane Florence?

For example, watching my colleagues at the Weather Channel, the adjective catastrophic was used nearly continuously:  Florence would bring catastrophic winds, catastrophic storm surge, catastrophic rains, and catastrophic flooding.

Many environmental advocacy websites, such as Grist, went full into catastrophe mode with Florence.

Now when is the use of catastrophe and catastrophic suitable?   Let's check the venerable Merriam Webster dictionary for guidance (see below).   According to the dictionary, a catastrophe is a momentous tragic event, with effects ranging from extreme misfortune to utter overthrow or ruin.

The origin of the  English word catastrophe is  from the Greek word katastrophē ‘overturning, sudden turn,’ from kata- ‘down’ + strophē‘turning’ 

Is a category 1 hurricane that was rapidly downgraded to a tropical storm, which produced a very modest storm surge and few reports of hurricane-forced winds over land a catastrophe?  Yes, there has been heavy rain and flooding in some areas, but such flooding is not unusual in an area periodically hit by tropical storms (e.g., Hurricane Matthew struck the region with similar impacts in 2016).

Catastrophe is far more appropriate for major, life-upending events, such was what Hurricane Katrina did to New Orleans or Hurricane Maria's effect on  Puerto Rico.  Those were true catastrophes.

New Orleans after Katrina. This is what catastrophe looks like

The National Weather Service is generally far more sober and responsible in their use of adjectives.  Words like dangerous, highly dangerous, life-threatening are more often used by National Weather Service forecasters.   They tend not to use catastrophe for more modest events.

As an aside, here is a graphic from GoogleTrends that shows the frequency of search including catastrophic.  Big increase with Florence, which is declining now as the storm fades away.

The use of over-the-top adjectives for major, but fairly regular, events undermines our ability to communicate the potential for truly disruptive storms.  Crying wolf will desensitize people to our messaging, endangering them when the really big events are predicted.   

Using screaming words like "catastrophic" may garner more clicks and viewership for a while...but in the end it will turn folks off.