Category 6 Hurricane With 192 MPH Winds?
With only a week to go before the official end of the Atlantic hurricane season, one of the questions scientists have discussed is whether the Saffir-Simpson Wind Scale, which measures hurricanes, should be revised. The highest level on the scale is a Category 5 storm with wind speeds of over 158 MPH or greater.
*Hurricane Data
The 2024 hurricane season started with a Category 5 storm and ended with one. Hurricane Beryl was the earliest Category 5 storm in history. It battered parts of the Caribbean, Mexico, and Texas in the Houston area. Its maximum sustained winds reached 165 MPH.
Hurricane Milton became a Category 5 hurricane late in the season. Its winds hit 180 MPH on October 8, but they slowed as it hit the West Coast of Florida. Nevertheless, it damaged and wrecked parts of several cities, costing billions of dollars.
Scientist Opinions
In a research paper published by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory titled “In a Warming World, Climate Scientists Consider Category 6 Hurricanes,” Climate scientist Michael Wehner wrote, “Our motivation is to reconsider how the open-endedness of the Saffir-Simpson Scale can lead to underestimation of risk, and, in particular, how this underestimation becomes increasingly problematic in a warming world.”
In other words, global warming makes it important to consider a higher storm category.
The next hurricane season starts June 30.
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