Hurricane Milton is already threatening to become one of the strongest hurricanes on record with wind gusts exceeding 200 miles per hour, prompting calls for a new Category 6 designation for such intense superstorms.
'These are astronomical numbers' Florida Meteorologist Noah Berggren said: Late Monday, Milton reached sustained winds of 180 mph and “gusts over 200 mph.”
“There are no meteorological words to describe the small size and intensity of this storm,” he marveled.
“This hurricane approaches the mathematical limits of what Earth's atmosphere above ocean water can produce.”
Milton, which was a Category 5 superstorm for much of Monday, was downgraded to a Category 4 early Tuesday with maximum sustained winds of 155 mph (2 mph below Category 5) as it pivots toward the Florida Gulf Coast. It is expected to increase again. , where catastrophic effects are expected.
After forming in the Gulf of Mexico, Milton rapidly accelerated from a tropical storm with winds of 60 mph on Sunday morning to a dangerous Category 5 hurricane with winds of 180 mph by Monday, reaching an incredible 130 mph in just 36 hours. There was a moderate increase.
If the hurricane's wind speeds reach 192 miles per hour, it would surpass a rare mark reached by only five storms since 1980. USA Today reported.
Its extraordinary strength has prompted calls from some meteorologists to expand observation areas. Saffir Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale Adds a new 6th category for hurricanes.
Although there are no official categories, professors Michael E. Mann tweeted “Milton may have actually broken the 'Cat 6' cutoff of 192 mph.”
Michael Wenner, a climate scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, and Jim Kossin, a former federal scientist and science advisor at the nonprofit First Street Foundation, are conducting research to explore whether a new category of hurricanes should be created. Co-authored and published earlier this year.
“We know that a number of recent storms have already reached this hypothetical Category 6 intensity, and based on multiple independent lines of evidence examining simulated maximum wind speeds and potential maximum wind speeds, More such storms are expected to occur as the climate continues to warm.” they wrote.
But Fox Weather meteorologist Mike Rollins told the Post on Tuesday that the new category was “unnecessary” and that the Saffir-Simpson scale remains the gold standard for measuring hurricanes. .
“In the meteorological field, there is a push to abolish scales and create new ways to measure storm strength, as storm surges and flash floods often cause more damage than wind alone. “I'm not aware of any work being done,” he said.
The late Robert Simpson, co-inventor of the Saffir-Simpson Wind Meter, said in 1999 It said creating a sixth category was “not important” as Category 5 storms have already caused significant damage to buildings.
Milton is already the fourth strongest recorded hurricane in barometric pressure (a measure of storm strength), with a central pressure of 897 millibars.
In the official record dating back more than 170 years, only five hurricanes have fallen below 900. According to the Miami Herald.
Milton weakened slightly to 924 MB on Tuesday morning.
