Hurricane Erin raced from a Category 1 to a Category 5 storm. If Erin keeps ramping up, is there a Category 6?

The longstanding hurricane rating system, the Saffir-Simpson Scale, only takes into account sustained wind speeds and not the ...

If a storm is a Category 3, 4 or 5, it is deemed a "major" hurricane due to the potential for "significant loss of life and ...

As of midday Thursday, Erin was classified as a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale with maximum ...

There is no “Category 6” on the five-level Saffir-Simpson scale. While a sixth tier has been discussed in hypothetical terms, it is not a real measurement of hurricane severity in 2024.

Following a hurricane at a CATEGORY 4, most of an area will be “uninhabitable” for anywhere between weeks or months. CATEGORY 5: This is the highest category on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale.

Let's break it down. Big Picture -What It Measures: As the name implies, the current version is strictly a wind scale that rates a hurricane's sustained winds (not gusts) from Category 1 through 5.

At that point, the NHC uses the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale of intensity to categorize it on a scale of 1-5.

Erin continues to grow in size, trying to restrengthen to a category 3 hurricane before passing to our east. At 11pm, the center of Hurricane Erin was located near latitude 32.8 North, longitude 73.1 ...

"The Saffir-Simpson scale is a measure of wind speed. But far more people die from hurricane flooding than from strong winds. Hurricane Florence made landfall near Wilmington as a Category 1 storm.