Due to climate change, hurricanes are becoming increasingly massive, so the magnitude at which their strength is expressed is no longer relevant. There must be an additional category for the outer category, which is the most violent tropical cyclones. American experts discuss this in the scientific journal “PNAS”.
The Saffir-Simpson scale is used for hurricanes and tornadoes. It has five chapters. The lightest hurricanes are Category 1, and the heaviest are Category 5. A hurricane is in the highest category with wind speeds of more than 250 kilometers per hour.
The problem, researchers say, is that the upper level has no end. A tornado that reaches just above the threshold receives the same “warning sign” as a tornado that is located miles above it. That’s why they argue in favor of introducing Level 6. This is for hurricanes with wind speeds of at least 309 kilometers per hour.
External class
According to the researchers, there were nearly 200 Category 5 tropical cyclones between 1980 and 2021. Five of them were strong enough for the proposed outlier category, and all were after 2012. The strongest of these was Hurricane Patricia, which hit Mexico in 2015. Wind speeds reached 345 kilometers per hour. More than six thousand people died in 2013 due to Typhoon Haiyan (315 km/h), most of them in the Philippines. Typhoons Meranti (2016), Goni (2020) and Surigi (2021) were also strong enough to reach Category 6.
Scientists fear that the matter will not stop there. If the average temperature rises by two degrees compared to pre-industrial times, the risk of very severe hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico doubles. In the Philippines, the chance of such typhoons increases by 50 percent. In addition, it is possible that the wind speed is higher, but the maximum speed has not yet been reached.
Hurricanes get their energy from warm air and warm sea water. As water temperatures rise, hurricanes not only form more frequently, but they also become more powerful and take longer to weaken.
Free unlimited access to Showbytes? Which can!
Log in or create an account and never miss a thing from the stars.
