COLUMBIA, S.C. — The Saffir-Simpson scale, used by the National Weather Service, ranges from Category 1 to 5. Under this scale, a Category 5 hurricane is a storm with wind speeds of 157 mph or greater.
This week, researchers suggested the addition of a new Category 6. Using the new scale, tropical storms with winds between 157 and 192 mph would be classified as Category 5, and storms with winds greater than that would be classified as Category 6.
The study's authors suggest that the existing scale may no longer accurately represent hurricane intensity in light of rising ocean temperatures.
According to the study, five tropical cyclones classified as Category 5 between 1980 and 2021 exceeded the Category 6 threshold. All five occurred within the last nine years, including Hurricane Patricia and Typhoon Haiyan.
The National Hurricane Center has not commented yet on adding a Category 6.