Hurricanes are becoming so strong that category 6 hurricanes are being considered

Hurricanes are becoming so strong that category 6 hurricanes are being considered


On the Saffir-Simpson scale, there are only 5 levels a storm can reach, but the constant exceeding of the last level prompts scientists to consider increasing it

given that increasing strength of hurricanes In the last decade, some experts have been discussing expanding the intensity scale used to classify the phenomenon, thus creating Category 6 hurricanes on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale. The proposal comes from scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.



Currently the categorization of such events only ranges from 1 to 5, based on a maximum of wind speed supported. In Category 5, a hurricane must have a speed of 155 mph (252 km/h) or more. As several storms have exceeded this limit in recent years, there has been a lack of a larger scale to define how much stronger the phenomenon is.

More intense hurricanes

When a hurricane reaches Category 5, extensive damage occurs wherever it passes, toppling trees and poles and destroying homes. The affected area ends up becoming uninhabitable for weeks or even months. Since 2013, at least five storms have reached the proposed Category 6, which would be defined by speeds at or above 309 km/h.




In the graph, scientists show hurricanes that have exceeded Saffir-Simpson category 5, in gray (Image: Wehner, Kossin/Environmental Sciences)

These were Hurricane Patricia and Typhoons Meranti, Goni, Haiyan, and Surigae. The first hit Mexico and parts of the United States in 2015, with winds of up to 346 km/h, making it the most powerful tropical cyclone of the Western Hemisphere. With climate change, the trend will only get worse Hurricanes also influence ocean warming.

Higher sea surface temperatures give hurricanes more energy, increasing its intensity and the speed of its winds. Additionally, they may become slower, stay in the affected areas longer, and cause more damage. No official agency has adopted category 6 for the Saffir-Simpson scale, but at least since 2019, with Hurricane Dorian, the idea has been floated by other experts.

The problem with the 5-level scale is that the most extreme ones left us room to get lost in the classification: since we consider any speed above 252 km/h, we lose the reference. In a time of weaker cyclones, it may not have made sense to increase levels, but now it does. As climate crises worsen, more severe storms will become more likely and adoption of the new category will become imminent.

Source: PNAS 1, two

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