Six instead of five levels: Researchers advocate expanding the hurricane scale. Climate change is fueling extreme weather, including hurricanes.
Many are already too strong for the current hurricane scale, criticize researchers - and suggest a solution. The researchers advocate a change to the currently used Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale, with a category five for peak wind speeds of 70 to 86 meters per second and an additional category six above that. The risk of hypothetical category six cyclones in the Philippines region increases by 50 percent if global warming exceeds 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.