Reply to Kennedy et al.: Katrina storm records in tide gauges

We appreciate the opportunity to discuss our definition of events of Katrina magnitude. Kennedy et al. (1) argue that our definition of Katrina magnitude events (2) is too low because we do not use any tide gauge data in the immediate proximity of New Orleans and the region of absolute maximal surge height. We note that hurricane best track records (3) for Katrina magnitude events show a ~20-y return period, similar to our estimate (2), which supports our definition of the Katrina benchmark. We therefore strongly dispute that our benchmark is too low and that it corresponds to merely moderate events.