Many residents are wondering if Hurricane Milton will become a “Category 6” storm. Milton was declared a deadly Category 5 at 12:00 PM on Monday, October 7, by the National Hurricane Center (NHC), going past predictions that meteorologists made over the weekend as the storm rapidly intensifies in the Gulf more than they thought it would. Within 18 hours, Milton went from a Category 1 to a Category 5. This begs the question of whether it will become even stronger than that before it hits Florida on Wednesday.
Will Hurricane Milton reach “Category 6”?
Technically, no hurricane can ever reach a “Category 6” because that category does not exist in the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHS). However, if we were to follow how the scaling works, Hurricane Milton has already reached “Category 6” status.
As noted by ABC News, the categories for hurricanes differ “in roughly 20 mph increments.” Since a Category 5 hurricane is officially defined by having over 157 mph sustained winds, a Category 6 “would be greater than 175 or 180 mph.” At 1:36 PM ET, the NHC announced on X (formerly Twitter) that Milton had “explosively” intensified with 175 mph winds, while storm chaser Colin McCarthy revealed on X at 5:16 pm ET. that it has reached 180 mph winds. These measurements would put Hurricane Milton within this supposed range of a “Category 6” hurricane
Meanwhile, other climate scientists believe that a “Category 6” storm should be introduced in to the SSHS. In a 2018 article by The Guardian, climatologist Michael Mann said that the current scale is becoming more and more outdated. He believes that a six on the scale “would be a better description for the strength of 200 mph storms, and it would also better communicate the well-established finding now that climate change is making the strongest storms even stronger.”
Mann also points out that the SSHS model, which was developed in 1971, considers a category five hurricane to lead “to essentially total destruction of human infrastructure.” Over the last 50 years, though, construction has become sturdier, so he believes that the introduction of a category 6 makes sense.
A research paper in 2024 similarly proposes a “Category 6” to have over 192 mph winds. It notes that a number of recent storms “have already reached [its] hypothetical category 6 wind speeds,” which includes Hurricane Patricia in 2015 and Typhoon Haiyan in 2013.
Beyond that, former NOAA Hurricane Hunter Jeff Masters stated in a 2019 Scientific American opinion piece that he believes a Category 6 and even a Category 7 should be introduced. According to the graph above, he proposes that a Category 7 hurricane would have over 210 mph winds. Doing so would “call attention to this new breed of ultra-intense catastrophic hurricanes that will likely grow increasingly common in the coming decades.”
