Category 6 Hurricane (1 Viewer)

[Optimus Prime]

Hurricanes are becoming so strong due to the climate crisis that the classification of them should be expanded to include a “category 6” storm, furthering the scale from the standard 1 to 5, according to a new study.

Over the past decade, five storms would have been classed at this new category 6 strength, researchers said, which would include all hurricanes with sustained winds of 192mph or more. Such mega-hurricanes are becoming more likely due to global heating, studies have found, due to the warming of the oceans and atmosphere.

Michael Wehner, a scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the US, said that “192mph is probably faster than most Ferraris, it’s hard to even imagine”. He has proposed the new category 6 alongside another researcher, James Kossin of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Being caught in that sort of hurricane would be bad. Very bad.”

The new study, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, proposes an extension to the widely used Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, which was developed in the early 1970s by Herbert Saffir, a civil engineer, and Robert Simpson, a meteorologist who was the director of the US National Hurricane Center.

The scale classifies any hurricane with a sustained maximum wind speed of 74mph or more to be a category 1 event, with the scale rising the faster the winds. Category 3 and above is considered to include major hurricanes that risk severe damage to property and life, with the strongest, category 5, including all storms that are 157mph or more.

Category 5 storms have caused spectacular damage in recent years – such as Hurricane Katrina’s ravaging of New Orleans in 2005 and Hurricane Maria’s devastating impact upon Puerto Rico in 2017 – but the new study argues there is now a class of even more extreme storms that demands its own category.……..

Hurricanes becoming so strong that new category needed, study says

Scientists propose new category 6 rating to classify ‘mega-hurricanes’, becoming more likely due to climate crisis

www.theguardian.com

 

[Madmarsha]

James Kossin of the University of Wisconsin-Madison. “Being caught in that sort of hurricane would be bad. Very bad."

 

[Nisey55]

Those things are just very large, rainy tornadoes.
Tornadacanes?

 

[Optimus Prime]

Tornicane

 

[Bill]

There have been several times that we (those of us who closely follow storm tracks) have seen these surface lows spin up to extremely high sustained wind speeds in excess of 170 mph. I remember when Hurricane Gilbert was in the western Caribbean moving west toward the Yucatan Peninsula that it had a reported maximum sustained wind speed of 225 mph!

At the time of that report it was a very well defined storm would have obliterated everything in its path had it maintained that strength. But as it's been noted on this forum by the knowledgeable weather folks around here, it's very hard for a storm to remain at such speeds for very long. Generally these systems go through stages of development & redevelopment, intensification & dissipation. They rarely hold onto such low pressure and extreme wind speeds for many days. In fact, they usually begin to break down as portions of the feeder bands begin to extend over the land as they approach the coastline.

That said, the greatest chance of such a catastrophic level storm to affect coastal communities would be if the intensification cycle happens just as it is closing in on landfall. With such a cycle of rapid intensification coupled with the right mix of atmospheric conditions, it certainly is possible that a hurricane could actually cross the coastline with sustained winds at 200+mph. Not that a Category 5 storm isn't horrible already. But anyone who would decide to 'ride out' a Category 6 would likely find it to be non-survivable outside of an extremely well built evacuation shelter.

 

[GeauxWhoDats]

Adding a 6 to the scale is just going to make people say "It's only a 3"......

 

[Bill]

Adding a 6 to the scale is just going to make people say "It's only a 3"......

The attitude that 'the authorities are always crying wolf' is alive & well in many coastal communities. There's no doubt that many people will interpret a new higher intensity designation as meaning the 'other' numbers as not being anything to worry about.

Perhaps there needs to be just 4 Categories for Louisiana...
Tropical Storm -
Cat 1 - Have a hurricane party and get ready to rake some leaves.
Cat 2 - Prepare for loss of electricity and parts of your house.
Cat 3 - Total obliteration! And we ain't coming to get you!

 

[TheRealJRad]

The attitude that 'the authorities are always crying wolf' is alive & well in many coastal communities. There's no doubt that many people will interpret a new higher intensity designation as meaning the 'other' numbers as not being anything to worry about.

Perhaps there needs to be just 4 Categories for Louisiana...
Tropical Storm -
Cat 1 - Have a hurricane party and get ready to rake some leaves.
Cat 2 - Prepare for loss of electricity and parts of your house.
Cat 3 - Total obliteration! And we ain't coming to get you!

Yea, I don’t envy them at all. If you undersell the risk, you can get people killed. If you oversell the risk, people will start ignoring the risk as being dramatic and ignore it. And can you really ever get it just right? I know in that position, I’d want to hedge my advisories to the harshest end of my scale. (I am, of course, excluding the way over the top videos we’re all thinking of)

 

[Madmarsha]

Tornicane

While we're at it, can I petition to change it to "himicane" instead of hurricane? I mean, we do have male names now.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

While we're at it, can I petition to change it to "himicane" instead of hurricane? I mean, we do have male names now.

Themicane? Theiricane?

 

[Nisey55]

While we're at it, can I petition to change it to "himicane" instead of hurricane? I mean, we do have male names now.

True, but they may not identify themselves as...

Just be careful or your house could take a direct hit.

 

[Nisey55]

Themicane? Theiricane?

You beat me to it!

 

[Heathen Saint]

Hurricane Patricia back in 2015 had (brief) sustained wind speeds of 215 mph

Solid 6er for sure

 

[bclemms]

I feel the scale shouldn't be based on wind alone and adding a cat 6 level is kind of silly. Rating categories is a meteorological thing right now, it should be based on impacts.

Hurricanes really should be ranked on threat level to population from all impacts. Take into account wind, storm surge and rainfall. The article calls Hurricane Katrina a category 5. It was a category 3 at landfall but due to it's size, fetch and the area it impacted it ended up being one of the worst disasters in US history. Category 3 does not represent the threat, only the wind speed.

Same goes for Tropical Storms Allison and Imelda or the unnamed tropical low that created the 2016 LA flooding or Hurricane Florence (cat 1). Those were closer to a cat 3-4 based on impact to property than some random tropical storm and easily posed a much bigger threat than Hurricane Patricia did as the strongest hurricane ever recorded. Patricia was fast moving and tiny. The hurricane force winds only extended out about 15 miles from the center, it was moving quickly, hit an unpopulated area with little surge impact. The costliest disaster in US history was Sandy, it's classification was a post tropical storm and no category assigned. Sandy was the equivalent to a category 1 hurricane, the damage was greater than any category 5 ever seen. However, that damage was spread over such a massive area it would be a category 3-4 based on impact to life and property.

On the same level, some hurricanes should be downgraded based on impacts even though the wind speeds were higher.

I kind of like the way California rates the atmospheric river events. They keep it really simple. Minor, moderate, major and extreme impacts. They assign an impact level to rainfall, mountain snow, coastal impacts from waves and then wind. It identifies each threat and communicates to the public what should be the biggest concern.

I speak to so many survivors that simply are not prepared to deal with the impacts because it was just a tropical storm or a cat 1.

 

[gboudx]

I feel the scale shouldn't be based on wind alone and adding a cat 6 level is kind of silly. Rating categories is a meteorological thing right now, it should be based on impacts.

Hurricanes really should be ranked on threat level to population from all impacts. Take into account wind, storm surge and rainfall. The article calls Hurricane Katrina a category 5. It was a category 3 at landfall but due to it's size, fetch and the area it impacted it ended up being one of the worst disasters in US history. Category 3 does not represent the threat, only the wind speed.

Same goes for Tropical Storms Allison and Imelda or the unnamed tropical low that created the 2016 LA flooding or Hurricane Florence (cat 1). Those were closer to a cat 3-4 based on impact to property than some random tropical storm and easily posed a much bigger threat than Hurricane Patricia did as the strongest hurricane ever recorded. Patricia was fast moving and tiny. The hurricane force winds only extended out about 15 miles from the center, it was moving quickly, hit an unpopulated area with little surge impact. The costliest disaster in US history was Sandy, it's classification was a post tropical storm and no category assigned. Sandy was the equivalent to a category 1 hurricane, the damage was greater than any category 5 ever seen. However, that damage was spread over such a massive area it would be a category 3-4 based on impact to life and property.

On the same level, some hurricanes should be downgraded based on impacts even though the wind speeds were higher.

I kind of like the way California rates the atmospheric river events. They keep it really simple. Minor, moderate, major and extreme impacts. They assign an impact level to rainfall, mountain snow, coastal impacts from waves and then wind. It identifies each threat and communicates to the public what should be the biggest concern.

I speak to so many survivors that simply are not prepared to deal with the impacts because it was just a tropical storm or a cat 1.

How do you feel about naming winter storms?