Do We Need A New Category for Superstorms?
The American categories of tropical hurricanes/typhoons in the Atlantic and the Eastern Pacific indicate the level of destruction expected by the authorities. As the highest, category 5, is “devastating”, there is no immediate need for a category 6, although scientists expect that future storms could be about 5 % more powerful. Today, the hurricane/typhoon scale includes winds of up to 288 km/h. If a category 6 were to be introduced, it need winds of even higher speeds, and if so, the first four category 6 storms have already been recorded in the Atlantic. Wilma from 2005 as the most recent with wind speeds of 295 km/h. Another category 6 storm was the super typhoon of Haiyan, which struck the Philippines in 2013 with wind speeds of 315 km/h.