Current:Home > Contact-usCould Milton become a Category 6 hurricane? Is that even possible?-LoTradeCoin
Could Milton become a Category 6 hurricane? Is that even possible?
View Date:2025-01-14 01:57:03
Milton’s race from a Category 2 to a Category 5 hurricane in just a few hours has left people wondering if the powerhouse storm could possibly become a Category 6.
The hurricane grew very strong very fast Monday after forming in the Gulf of Mexico, exploding from a 60-mph tropical storm Sunday morning to a powerhouse 180-mph Category 5 hurricane − an eye-popping increase of 130 mph in 36 hours.
The rapidly developing hurricane that shows no signs of stopping won’t technically become a Category 6 because the category doesn't exist at the moment. But it could soon reach the level of a hypothetical Category 6 experts have discussed and stir up arguments about whether the National Hurricane Center’s long-used scale for classifying hurricane wind speeds from Category 1 to 5 might need an overhaul.
Milton is already in rarefied air by surpassing 156 mph winds to become a Category 5. But if it reaches wind speeds of 192 mph, it will surpass a threshold that just five hurricanes and typhoons have reached since 1980, according to Michael Wehner, a climate scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Jim Kossin, a retired federal scientist and science advisor at the nonprofit First Street Foundation.
Live updatesHurricane Milton grows 'explosively' stronger with 180-mph winds
The pair authored a study looking at whether the extreme storms could become the basis of a Category 6 hurricane denomination. All five of the storms occurred over the previous decade.
The scientists say some of the more intense cyclones are being supercharged by record warm waters in the world’s oceans, especially in the Gulf of Mexico and parts of Southeast Asia and the Philippines.
Kossin and Wehner said they weren’t proposing adding a Category 6 to the wind scale but were trying to “inform broader discussions” about communicating the growing risks in a warming world.
Other weather experts hope to see wind speed categories de-emphasized, saying they don’t adequately convey a hurricane’s broader potential impacts such as storm surge and inland flooding. The worst of the damage from Helene came when the storm reached the Carolinas and had already been downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm.
What is the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale?
The hurricane center has used the well-known scale – with wind speed ranges for each of five categories – since the 1970s. The minimum threshold for Category 5 winds is 157 mph.
Designed by engineer Herbert Saffir and adapted by former center director Robert Simpson, the scale stops at Category 5 since winds that high would “cause rupturing damages that are serious no matter how well it's engineered,” Simpson said during a 1999 interview.
The open-ended Category 5 describes anything from “a nominal Category 5 to infinity,” Kossin said. “That’s becoming more and more inadequate with time because climate change is creating more and more of these unprecedented intensities.”
More:'Category 5' was considered the worst hurricane. There's something scarier, study says.
veryGood! (46)
Related
- Why Jersey Shore's Jenni JWoww Farley May Not Marry Her Fiancé Zack Clayton
- Tens of thousands still stranded by Burning Man flooding in Nevada desert
- Bad Bunny, John Stamos and All the Stars Who Stripped Down in NSFW Photos This Summer
- Kristin Chenoweth Marries Josh Bryant in Texas Wedding Ceremony
- 'Dangerous and unsanitary' conditions at Georgia jail violate Constitution, feds say
- From Ariana Grande to Britney Spears, Pour One Out for the Celebrities Who Had Breakups This Summer
- A poet of paradise: Tributes pour in following the death of Jimmy Buffett
- Coach Steve: Lessons to learn after suffering a concussion
- Solawave Black Friday Sale: Don't Miss Buy 1, Get 1 Free on Age-Defying Red Light Devices
- South Korea’s Yoon to call for strong international response to North’s nukes at ASEAN, G20 summits
Ranking
- Nevada trial set for ‘Dances with Wolves’ actor in newly-revived sex abuse case
- RHOA's Shereé Whitfield Addresses Plastic Surgery Accusations in Outrageous Reunion Bonus Clip
- LSU football flops in loss to Florida State after Brian Kelly's brash prediction
- Horoscopes Today, September 2, 2023
- Nicole Kidman Reveals the Surprising Reason for Starring in NSFW Movie Babygirl
- Joey King Marries Steven Piet in Spain Wedding
- Lobstermen Face Hypoxia in Outer Cape Waters
- DeSantis super PAC pauses voter canvassing in 4 states, sets high fundraising goals for next two quarters
Recommendation
-
Trump is likely to name a loyalist as Pentagon chief after tumultuous first term
-
Student loan repayments surge ahead of official restart, but many may still be scrambling
-
Smash Mouth Singer Steve Harwell Is in Hospice Care
-
Metallica postpones Arizona concert after James Hetfield tests positive for COVID-19
-
Texas mother sentenced to 50 years for leaving kids in dire conditions as son’s body decomposed
-
More than 85,000 highchairs that pose a fall risk are being recalled
-
Southeast Asian leaders are besieged by thorny issues as they hold an ASEAN summit without Biden
-
You're Invited to See The Crown's Season 6 Teaser About King Charles and Queen Camilla's Wedding