Current:Home > FinanceSurpassing Quant Think Tank Center|Could Milton become a Category 6 hurricane? Is that even possible? -Summit Capital Strategies
Surpassing Quant Think Tank Center|Could Milton become a Category 6 hurricane? Is that even possible?
Chainkeen View
Date:2025-04-07 14:32:13
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 Surpassing Quant Think Tank Centerpossibly 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! (7485)
Related
- Nearly 400 USAID contract employees laid off in wake of Trump's 'stop work' order
- Here's how much Caitlin Clark will make in the WNBA
- Google is combining its Android software and Pixel hardware divisions to more broadly integrate AI
- Amazon Prime's 'Fallout': One thing I wish they'd done differently
- Are Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp down? Meta says most issues resolved after outages
- Ex-Indianapolis elementary teacher orchestrated 'fight club'-style disciplinary system, lawsuit says
- High mercury levels in some Lake Maurepas fish bring meal restrictions, state officials say
- Ashanti and Nelly Are Engaged: How Their Rekindled Romance Became More Than Just a Dream
- Angelina Jolie nearly fainted making Maria Callas movie: 'My body wasn’t strong enough'
- Woman dies after riding on car’s hood and falling off, police say
Ranking
- Jamie Foxx gets stitches after a glass is thrown at him during dinner in Beverly Hills
- Mariah Carey's new Vegas residency manages to be both dazzling and down-to-earth
- Cheryl Burke recalls 'Dancing With the Stars' fans making her feel 'too fat for TV'
- Idaho Murder Case: Bryan Kohberger Gives New Details About His Alibi
- EU countries double down on a halt to Syrian asylum claims but will not yet send people back
- Ex-youth center resident testifies that counselor went from trusted father figure to horrific abuser
- U.K. lawmakers back anti-smoking bill, moving step closer to a future ban on all tobacco sales
- Amazon Prime's 'Fallout': One thing I wish they'd done differently
Recommendation
Intellectuals vs. The Internet
Tyler Cameron Slams Gerry Turner and Theresa Nist For Putting a Stain on Love and Bachelor Nation
Sweeping gun legislation approved by Maine lawmakers following Lewiston mass shooting
A lab chief’s sentencing for meningitis deaths is postponed, extending grief of victims’ families
Residents worried after ceiling cracks appear following reroofing works at Jalan Tenaga HDB blocks
Musicians pay tribute to Allman Brothers guitarist Dickey Betts after death at 80
District attorney says Memphis police officer may have been killed by friendly fire
Man charged with 4 University of Idaho deaths was out for a drive that night, his attorneys say