Stronger Category Of Storm Needed, Says Climate Study

Hurricanes are becoming so strong that the classification of them should be expanded to include a Category 6 storm, according to a new study. A handful of super powerful tropical storms in the last decade and the prospect of more to come has a couple of experts proposing the new category.

- 

Studies have shown that the strongest tropical storms are getting more intense because of climate change. So the traditional five-category Saffir-Simpson scale, developed more than 50 years ago, may not show the true power of the most muscular storms, two climate scientists suggest in study published yesterday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. They propose a sixth category for storms with winds that exceed 192mph (309kmph).

Currently, storms with winds of 157mph (252kmph) or higher are Category 5. The study’s authors said that open-ended grouping doesn’t warn people enough about the higher dangers from monstrous storms that flirt with 200mph (322kmph) or higher.

Several said they don’t think another category is necessary. They said it could even give the wrong signal to the public because it’s based on wind speed, while water is by far the deadliest killer in hurricanes.

Since 2013, five storms – all in the Pacific – had winds of 192mph or higher that would have put them in the new category, with two hitting the Philippines. As the world warms, conditions grow more ripe for such whopper storms, including in the Gulf of Mexico, where many storms that hit the United States get stronger, the study authors said.