Hurricanes are getting so strong in a warming world that a Category 6 intensity should be added to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind scale, a new study finds.
Why it matters: The research shows how significantly climate change is altering storm intensity and other characteristics, as well as further underscoring the limitations of the scale.
Reality check: The paper, published Monday in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, does not represent an official move by the National Hurricane Center to add another hurricane category.
Some native Floridians now dismiss a Cat 4 as not as big deal as a Cat 5, not realizing the very small wind level difference. Adding a 6 would let them downplay a 5. My own stance is that once things start getting picked up by moving air, it’s all dangerous and should be prepared for and avoided.
Plus, most deaths in a hurricane aren’t from the wind. They’re from drowning from flood waters. There’s plenty of eyewitness videos now on the internet for anyone to be aware of the seconds it takes to go from safe to shit, but people will always think it only happens to other people.
Cat 3 was when most reasonable Floridans I knew on the mainland started giving a shit, but I guess most of the reasonable ones have left by now. I still remember Charlie Francis and Jeanne being pretty awful.
They didn’t leave, go visit a graveyard and look at the dates.
My wife’s dad died in 2019 and they got him a nice plot that was pretty secluded. The cemetery filled up and all the graves around him are 2020-2022, COVID killed a lot of people 🥲
Yeah, but mine goes to 11…
My thoughts exactly. I want them to see the data of how much more common Cat5s are before they start shrugging them off since it’s not the absolute highest level of destruction