The world has never seen a Category 6 hurricane, but the day may be coming

[rangerrebew]

The world has never seen a Category 6 hurricane, but the day may be coming
July 11, 2018 by David Fleshler, Sun Sentinel
 

As a ferocious hurricane bears down on South Florida, water managers desperately lower canals in anticipation of 4 feet of rain.

Everyone east of Dixie Highway is ordered evacuated, for fear of a menacing storm surge. Forecasters debate whether the storm will generate the 200 mph winds to achieve Category 6 status.

That is one scenario for hurricanes in a warmer world, a subject of fiendish complexity and considerable scientific research.

https://phys.org/news/2018-07-world-category-hurricane-day.html

[Weird Tolkienish Figure]

"We used to think 20 years ago that in a warmer climate there would be more hurricanes," Columbia' Sobel said. "Then the computer models got better. Most of those started to show fewer hurricanes, not more. No one knew why. Then some of the models started to show increases with warming. So I think we're back to where we don't know."

 

[dfwgator]

 

[rustynail]

They never quit.

[thackney]

The water in the tropical Atlantic is the coldest in decades. That may stymie hurricane season.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2018/06/18/the-water-in-the-tropical-atlantic-is-the-coldest-in-decades-that-may-stymie-hurricane-season/?utm_term=.4a9077397be8

...Currently, sea surface temperatures averaged over the tropical Atlantic (shown in the black box in the image below) are the coldest that they have been in the middle of June since at least the early 1980s.

Colder water means less fuel for storms, and it also tends to be associated with higher pressure and a more stable atmosphere — both of which suppress strong thunderstorms that are the building blocks of hurricanes....

[dfwgator]

They never quit.

This one goes to 11.....