A new study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences proposes a sixth category for hurricanes and typhoons because of global warming. Currently category 5 is the biggest storm we’ve got but researchers say that we need a category 6 because “it could raise awareness about the perils of the increased risk of major TCs due to global warming.”
So basically, they’re just doing this to scare you.
The study says that “the risk of category 6 storms is presently near but not zero.” They do have a “high degree of confidence” that a storm of that size will be “different from zero.”
Even the United Nation’s International Panel on Climate Change do not predict storms with winds above 173 miles per hour as a regularly occurring cautionary tale. So why would we spend time worrying about winds above 192 mph? Just to raise awareness. Or to scare you. Even the Associated Press seems to see through this, although below their sensational headline: “Several experts told The Associated Press they don’t think another category is necessary. They said it could even give the wrong signal to the public because it’s based on wind speed, while water is by far the deadliest killer in hurricanes.”
