Hurricane Question - What Comes After Category 5?

[DistressedAmerican]

Or do you max out the alert system completely at that point?

Is there designation that surpasses the known cat 5's?

On Edit: Related question - Is it time to recalibrate the scale?

[davidinalameda]

1. you max out

or grab your ankles and kiss everything good bye

[shoelace414]

2. the apocalypse

(there is nothing higher, just like F5 tornado is the highest)

[geomon666]

3. No

There's nothing after CAT 5.

[walkon]

10. So true!

If you are hit by 150mph winds or 180mph winds the end result is you are blown down. There is nothing after a CAT 5 storm.

[maine_raptor]

4. Five is the highest

but after this season, who knows?

[karlrschneider]

12. I don't think you can buy a "consumer type" thermometer that goes over

120F because it has rarely exceeded that in recorded history (ISTR it did hit 134 in...Libya? a while back) so up until now there was no need for them, just like a CAT "6", hurricane, whatever that would be has not yet been observed. Whatever is going on (obviously not Global Warming, according to Dear Leader) might require us to extend the ranges of some meterological measuring gizmos.
:eyes:

[KansDem]

56. Two years ago I visited Death Valley...124 degrees

But it was a "dry heat." :)

Actually, it didn't feel that hot (I've been more uncomfortable in 100 degree heat and high humidity), but there were many warning signs about that said such heat could be deceiving, and warning hikers to take sun protection and plenty of water.

[Mikimouse]

61. Like the old Beatrice Foods advertisement...

Global Warming Corp. " We don't make your hurricanes, we make them better"

[Geoff R. Casavant]

31. But this goes to eleven!

Still hilarious after all these years.

[MuseRider]

59. Yes it is.

Thanks for the grin.

[Rainscents]

5. End of the world?

:sarcasm:

[KyndCulture]

6. stick head between legs, pucker...

There is nothing on the Saphir Simpson scale higher than that.

[trof]

37. KYAG

Kiss Your Ass Goodbye

[dogday]

54. The Saphir Simpson scale cat 6

you are screwed, and you are more screwed...

[Connie_Corleone]

7. The rapture. nt

[DoYouEverWonder]

8. So far

they seem to max out and then go back down a bit.

However, this one is in the Gulf with no place else to go and an endless supply of warm water so there's no telling.

Depth of the water is also going to make a difference when Rita gets closer to land. If the water gets shallower it could also help the storm lose energy.

[lynettebro440]

9. You run

like a mother fucker north....Catagory 6 won't find you there.

[DistressedAmerican]

13. Why Do I See Arizona nd New Mexico Getting A Lot Of Converts?

May still get some wind and flash flooding from a monster but the strom surge will be far away!

[maine_raptor]

19. Why do you think I live in Maine?

[GreenPartyVoter]

35. The worst we have been hit with is a cat 2. And tornadoes are so

rare that they almost don't count.

Although there was that one time I swear I saw a funnel finger coming down over Bangor. But nothing came of it so I guess that's not what it was or it changed its mind about touching down.

[maine_raptor]

43. My only problem with hurricanes in Maine

is that they knock all the apples off my trees before they are ready to be picked. (I wish everybody effectd by hurricanes had only just that same problem.)

[GreenPartyVoter]

58. I can't recall which hurrican it was but I was a teen so it had to have

been 17 years or so ago. The gusts were pretty awesome but the rain and lightning were nowhere to be seen. So we went out in a big field with a tarp that had rope handles on it and ran and jumped so that the gusts of wind would catch us and "throw" us a few feet. I think it felt somewhat like walking on the moon, maybe. *g*

And I too, wish hurricanes were like that for everyone. :(

[ohio_liberal]

40. No, but you'll sure as hell get the remnants...

10 inches of rain in 24 hours in Ohio is not a pretty thing, lemme tell ya :(

[bonito]

11. The hurricane suddenly stops and the earth starts spinning

out of controll.

[Drewskie]

14. I suspect

It's physically impossible.

[DistressedAmerican]

21. Do The Same Laws Of Physics And Meteorology Apply In Bush's America?

I wonder with climate change if we have different conditions than ever before that may be able to breed even uglier storms than previously witnessed...

[Drewskie]

51. Laws of physics always apply

only conditions change. A water molecule is still a water molecule only the ocean temp has risen by a tiny fraction. Maybe further categories could be made beyond cat 5... don't know enough about it. But there is breaking point to everything... in the case of a water molecule of course when it evaporates and releases engergy.

[regnaD kciN]

28. Nothing "physically impossible" about it...

Cat5 was arbitrarily chosen as the upper range of wind speeds. I've been reading some speculations on the weather sites that they may create a Cat6 rating in the near future.

FWIW, there was a typhoon back in 1979 with sustained winds of 190 and a radius of 675 miles (in other words, at least tropical-storm intensity winds over a 1,350 mile range) Fortunately, it was out at sea at the time, and weakened substantially before it finally made landfall in Japan.

[-..__...]

15. Hurricane Nigel...

it goes to 11.

[DistressedAmerican]

23. LOL!!! Not What I Expected To Read. Was Expecting Something Historical!

:spray:

[berni_mccoy]

16. It Becomes a F4 Tornado... a REALLY BIG TORNADO

[lilymidnite]

17. 11

with a nod to This is Spinal Tap

[BigMcLargehuge]

18. godzilla

[Mr_Spock]

20. Category zillion!

No, I'm series!!!!!111 :D

[BigMcLargehuge]

22. THIS IS HUGH!!!11!!

[Mr_Spock]

34. Hay, whatre you, sum kinda Moran??/???

:P

[gasperc]

24. Camille in 1969 was 190mph, it's #1

I posted a list of all the gulf hurricanes earlier today, I'll edit and add it to this. one interesting thing was that the lasts ime there were two gulf hurricanes cat3+ was back in 1916

There were three years 1909, 1915 and 1916 when there was two storms of cat 3 or higher in the gulf.

Storm Lowest Pressure/ Areas Effected Rank
year Date Sustained Winds
1900 9/9/1900. 27.49/931 mb - Texas. 2
1906 9/24/1906. 28.29/958 mb - Alabama/Mississippi. 15
1909 9/20/1909. 27.49/931 mb - Louisiana. 2
1909 9/1909. 28.29/958 mb - Texas. 15
1915 9/29/1915. 27.49/931 mb - Louisiana. 2
1915 8/16/1915- 27.91/945 mb - Texas 5
1916 9/17/1916- 27.99/948 mb - Texas. 8
1916 7/6/1916. 27.99/948 mb - Alabama 8
1917 9/1917. 28.29/958 mb - Florida Panhandle 15
1918 9/1918. 28.20/955 mb - Louisiana. 13
1926 9/30/1926. 28.20/955 mb - Louisiana. 13
1932 8/15/1932. 27.79/941 mb - Texas. 3
1933 9/7/1933. 28.03/949 mb - Texas. 9
1934 9/11/1934. 28.41/962 mb - Louisiana. 17
1936 9/6/1936. 28.47/964 mb - Florida Panhandle 16
1941 9/1941. 28.29/958 mb - Texas. 15
1942 8/30/1942. 28.05/950 mb Texas. 10
1957 6/27/1957 AUDREY. 27.91/945 mb - Louisiana. 5
1961 9/11/1961- CARLA. 27.49/931 mb - 140-Mph. Texas. 2
1964 10/3/1964 - HILDA. 28.05/950 mb - 115-Mph. Louisiana. 10
1965 9/9/1965 - BETSY. 27.99/948 mb - 125-Mph. Louisiana. 8
1967 9/20/1967-BEULAH. 28.05/950 mb - 120-Mph. Texas. 10
1969 8/17/1969 CAMILLE. 26.84/909 mb - 190-Mph. Mississippi. 1
1970 8/3/1970- CELIA. 27.91/945 mb - 125- Mph. Texas. 5
1974 9/8/1974 - CARMEN. 28.11/952 mb - 120-Mph. Louisiana. 12
1975 9/23/1975 - ELOISE. 28.20/955 mb - 125-Mph. Florida Panhandle 13
1979 9/11/1979 - FREDERIC. 27.94/946 mb - 130- Mph. Alabama. 6
1980 8/9/1980 - ALLEN.. 27.91/945 mb - 115-Mph. Texas 5
1983 8/18/1983 - ALICIA. 28.41/962 mb - 115-Mph. Texas. 17
1985 9/2/1985 - ELENA. 28.32/959 mb - 115-Mph. Alabama/Mississippi. 16
1992 8/26/1992 - ANDREW. 28.23/956 mb - 115-Mph. Louisiana. 14
1995 10/4/1995 - OPAL. 27.83/942 mb - 115-Mph. Florida Panhandle 4
1999 8/23/1999 - BRET. 28.08/951 mb - 115-Mph. Texas. 11
2004 9/16/2004 - IVAN. 27.94/946 mb - 120- Mph. Alabama/Florida Panhandle 7

[Brotherjohn]

33. Ummm... there were 2 Cat 3s in the Gulf in 2004: Ivan and Charley. (nt)

[gasperc]

60. Charley wasn't on the list, it was either less than a 3

or landed on the east side

[Minstrel Boy]

25. Something like a super typhoon, like Tip

Though I suppose they'd still call it a "Category 5."

Ranks number 1 as the most intense tropical cyclone on record. Tip was located in the northwest Pacific Ocean, which on October 12, 1979 had winds gusting as high as 190 mph (306 km/h) and a central pressure of 870 mb (25.69"Hg). The size of the circulation around Typhoon Tip was approximately 1350 miles (2174 km) across. If placed over the continental U.S., it would almost cover the western half of the country.
http://www.srh.weather.gov/srh/jetstream/tropics/tip.htm

[DistressedAmerican]

30. Yeah, I Think That Is What Was In The Back Of My Head. Supertyphoons

Do we have a similar deisgnation for superhurricanes?

I know it is a different ocean. But, it looks more and more like the Atlantic may be getting good and fired up. Mix some gulf in there and you may have something for the record books.

Tip is one mean MOFO! Look at that beast!

[AX10]

38. thanks.

[Jersey Devil]

26. Only 2 Cat 5 hurricanes have hit the US in the 20th century

There were only two category 5 hurricanes with winds over 156 mph and a pressure of less than 920 mb (the world's lowest pressures ever recorded were caused by hurricanes) that struck the United States in the 20th century. The two were a 1935 hurricane that struck the Florida Keys and Hurricane Camille in 1969. Only 14 category 4 storms hit the U.S. and these included the nation's deadliest hurricane - the 1900 Galveston, Texas hurricane and Hurricane Andrew which hit Florida and Louisiana in 1992.
http://geography.about.com/cs/hurricanes/a/hurricane.htm?terms=hurricane

[geomon666]

32. Andrew was a CAT 5 n/t

[Brotherjohn]

36. Yes. Andrew was upgraded at a later date, upon analysis of data.

I wouldn't be surprised if they do that with Katrina, eventually. I've heard reports of steady winds of 174mph in Slidell at landfall. The storm surge was definitely greater than Camille, but that could be explained by the fact that the surge would not dissipate so quickly when the winds weakened a bit.

[Walt Starr]

45. Nope, it was a Cat 4 when it hit.

Look at my post below.

[geomon666]

49. It was upgraded to a CAT 5 after landfall.

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/NOAA_pr_8-21-02.html

AFTER 10 YEARS, HURRICANE ANDREW GAINS STRENGTH
In the record books, it's still one of America's costliest hurricanes, and today National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists announced Hurricane Andrew was even stronger than originally believed when it made landfall in south Florida 10 years ago this week. Based on new research, scientists upgraded the storm from a Category 4, to a Category 5, the highest on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale.

In their re-analysis of Hurricane Andrew's maximum sustained surface-wind speeds, the NOAA/National Hurricane Center Best Track Committee, a team of hurricane experts, concluded winds were 165 mph - 20 mph faster than earlier estimated B as the storm made landfall. Herbert Saffir, a structural engineer who co-designed the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, joined the committee as an observer and reviewed the team's results.

[geomon666]

46. Well the reason that happened really is because...

Andrew destroyed the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

[Walt Starr]

41. Dropped to a Cat 4 just before it hit

It dropped from a Cat 5 to a Cat 4 long before it made landfall in Florida, look at the track. The white is Category five:

[iconoclastic cat]

27. Amelia Earhart comes back, hears who is president, and flies back in. n/t

[izzie]

29. Hell

==

[lectrobyte]

39. Anything 155 and up is a 5. I suppose if there were enough "high 5s"

pardon the humor, then they'd go 1 through 6 with 5 say 155 to 190, and 6 as anything over 190. But (let's hope) it doesn't get to the point where such hurricanes are common enough that the question is worth considering.

[fishnfla]

42. The answer is 4. Storm aint supposed to stay 5 over 24 hrs

thats what I heard anyways

[DistressedAmerican]

48. More A Theoretical Question. Not About this Storm Per Se. Although...

[fishnfla]

52. In theory, no storm can hold a cat 5 status for more than 24 hrs

thats the prevailing wisdom, I've heard. Proven twice this year, both Katrina and Dennis weakened before landfall.

Which should make it a good thing this one is getting all blowed up now, over 2 days before windfall

[AnnieBW]

44. Bend Over

and kiss your ass goodbye!

[skids]

47. CAT 4 comes after CAT 5.

CAT5 hurricanes start to undergo "eye wall replacement" where they drop back down to CAT4 and then go back up to CAT5.

But as far as storm surge goes, once a CAT5, always a CAT5.

What you should start looking at now is the pressure figure and the overall size of the storm. Don't think that it gets less destructive if it drops back down to a cat4. That only means less destrction around the eye. The storm surge will still be immense and the real question is how far out from the center do high winds extend.

[all.of.me]

50. i posted this thought last week.

if the gulf keeps warming and the hurricanes get worse and worse, we'll need to change the scale. you'll see reports of 7's! 5 will soon be nothing.

[Mutley]

53. Everybody dies.

[TWiley]

55. Christians are raptured resulting in Peace for 10,000 years.

I am beginning to think that God hates the Bible Belt. He has been belting it quite a bit that past 5 years.

[leftofthedial]

57. Then it shifts to 1 on the Limbaugh scale

for blowing hard.