Photo:NOAA
NOAA
Should there be a Category 6 hurricane designation? That is the question.
A new study in theProceedings of the National Academy of Sciencespublished earlier this week proposes creating a Category 6, which would apply to storms with 193 mph winds or more.
The Saffir-Simpson scale, introduced in 1970, categorizes damage based on sustained wind speed.
The study’s authors said climate change has affected the need for a new classification sinceincreasing ocean temperatures are fueling larger storms.
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However, other experts have argued that adding in a Category 6 would increase the likelihood that people would underestimate storms that rank much lower — even though storms of any strength can be deadly.
“At NHC, we’ve tried to steer the focus toward the individual hazards, which include storm surge, wind, rainfall, tornadoes and rip currents, instead of the particular category of the storm, which only provides information about the hazard from wind,” National Hurricane Center Director Michael Brennan said in a statement toABC News.
From 1980 to 2021, five tropical cyclones — out of 197 — around the world have exceeded the threshold of a hypothetical Category 6 designation,CNN reported.
All five occurred within the last decade, per the outlet, including Hurricane Patricia, which hit Mexico, in 2015 and Super Typhoon Haiyan, a 2013 devastating storm in the Philippines.
“Our results are not meant to propose changes to this scale, but rather to raise awareness that the wind-hazard risk from storms presently designated as Category 5 has increased and will continue to increase under climate change,” James Kossin, one author of the study, said in astatement.
source: people.com
