How Strong Can a Hurricane Get?

[tannybogus]

Hurricane Gustav, churning toward the Gulf Coast now, has a small chance of becoming a Category 5 storm before it makes landfall, according to the National Hurricane Center. That would put its winds at 156 mph or stronger. Such winds would devastate most buildings and trees in the storms path. Little would be left standing.

There is no such thing as a Category 6 storm, in part because once winds reach Category 5 status, it doesn't matter what you call it, it's really, really bad.

Category 5 on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale has no upper bound, on paper. But in theory, winds from a powerful hurricane could blow the scale out of the water, scientists say.

Pushing the limit

The scale starts with a Category 1, which ranges from 74 to 95 mph. A Category 5 storm has winds of 156 mph or stronger. An extrapolation of the scale suggests that if a Category 6 were created, it would be in the range of 176-196 mph.

Hurricane Wilma, in 2005, had top winds of 175 mph.

http://www.livescience.com/mysteries/080829-llm-category-6-hurricane.html

Oy!:yoiks:

[spindrifter]

1. The Pacific can produce more powerful storms...

Super Typhoon Tip (international designation: None, JTWC designation: 23W) was the largest and most intense tropical cyclone on record. The nineteenth tropical storm, twelfth typhoon, and third super typhoon of the 1979 Pacific typhoon season, Tip developed out of a disturbance in the monsoon trough on October 4 near Pohnpei. Initially, a tropical storm to its northwest hindered the development and motion of Tip, though after it tracked further north Tip was able to intensify. After passing Guam, it rapidly intensified and reached peak winds of 306 km/h (190 mph) and a worldwide record low sea level pressure of 870 mbar (hPa) on October 12. At its peak strength, it was also the largest tropical cyclone on record with a diameter of 2,220 km (1,380 mi). It slowly weakened as it continued west-northwestward, and later turned to the northeast under the influence of an approaching trough. Tip made landfall on southern Japan on October 19, and became an extratropical cyclone shortly thereafter.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Typhoon_Tip

[Breeze54]

2. "The greatest potential for loss of life related to a hurricane is from the storm surge."

Over 75 MPH winds is pretty devastating... 180 MPH (CAT 5) is catastrophic! :scared:

And it isn't just the high winds... it's the Storm Surge! The Ocean builds
to a crescendo of huge waves and floods and over takes the shore and inland!

"The greatest potential for loss of life related to a hurricane is from the storm surge."

http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/storm_surge.shtml







The currents created by the tide combine with the action of the waves to severely erode beaches and coastal highways. Many buildings withstand hurricane force winds until their foundations, undermined by erosion, are weakened and fail.

More Info Here: http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/storm_surge.shtml

[tannybogus]

3. Here's a picture of what Camille did:

http://www.livescience.com/mysteries/080829-llm-category-6-hurricane.html

Might as well have been toys!
:hide:

[Breeze54]

4. Hurricane Bob approaching the Rhode Island coastline in August 1991 (Photo courtesy NOAA).

Hurricane Bob approaching the Rhode Island coastline in August 1991 (Photo courtesy NOAA).






Hurricane Bob hit Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts as a moderate hurricane in 1991. Bob was small in size - but concentrated great power in isolated areas. Fortunately, a northeasterly track kept most of Long Island, Connecticut, and western Rhode Island on the weaker side of the hurricane. This was fortunate, since Bob was stronger than Gloria in 1985. Unlike Gloria, which arrived at low tide - the storm surge from Bob was more significant, and several areas reported extensive wind and storm-surge damage. However, the effects of Bob were in small beach towns in Rhode Island and southeastern Massachusetts, thus media coverage was minimal. Nevertheless - damage in several areas was at levels not seen since Hurricane Carol in 1954.

More...


Storm-surge damage on Buzzards Bay in Wareham, Massachusetts
from Hurricane Bob in 1991 (Photo Courtesy of Cape Cod Times-
Photographer Steve Heaslip.)

[hootinholler]

9. Katrina storm surge taken in Bay St Louis, Ms.

-Hoot

[Breeze54]

10. Wow!! That's some picture!!

:hug:

[hootinholler]

12. I wasn't there, but I know a few who were.

A friend spent the storm in a liveoak tree after his house blew apart, He lives 5 miles inland in Pearlington Ms.

-Hoot

[lonestarnot]

11. Holy crap that looks scarey! How high is that?

[hootinholler]

13. The person who posted it said 40' n/t

[lonestarnot]

23. Damn 40'!

[hootinholler]

24. That was a cat 3 also. Gustov should be a solid cat 4 maybe 5 at landfall.

This is not going to be pretty. Most projection tracks have it slamming chemical alley once inland. You think the spills when NO flooded were bad, we ain't seen nothing yet. Hopefully those plants are shutting down and shipping product out of the path. Lots of nasties are manufactured there and the tanks should be empty before the shit hits that fan.

-Hoot

[lonestarnot]

25. Cuba reportedly had a 15 foot surge last I heard.

We knew these damn things were going to happen, yet it still makes me sick to my stomach for all concerned.

[HooptieWagon]

17. awesome pic

I've got friends in Bay St Louis. One tried to ride the storm out about a block inland from the bay. Forced to the roof by the surge, he managed to swim to a tree, then was able to climb aboard a small boat that washed by. He was found after the storm clinging to the pilings of the wrecked Bay Bridge - alive thank goodness. I've got pictures of another friend's house and of Bay-Waveland Yacht Club. Both structures survived Camille with only moderate damage. Both were utterly obliterated by Katrina. Residents there had thought that NO storm could possibly be worse than Camille... they were wrong.

[hootinholler]

19. My understanding was that everything between the railroad and the beach

was simply washed away.

This photo was taken at Our Lady of the Beach.

-Hoot

[HooptieWagon]

22. That is my understanding

but I haven't seen pictures of that area other than media. B-W YC was about 1/2 or 3/4 of a mile up the bay from the bay bridge, my friends house was another 1/2 mile or so up the bay. both on the west shore. Everything there was leveled for about a 1/4 mile inland. Not damaged - gone.

[Demeter]

5. Gustav Aims to Blow the GOP Right Out of the Water

Now THAT would be a powerful storm!

[bbinacan]

7. I don't get your point.

Please explain.

[lonestarnot]

14. Maybe because they prayed for a rain out on Obama's acceptance speech.

:shrug:

[Texasgal]

18. Good God...

that is fucking disgusting!

Stop it!

[FloridaJudy]

6. I went through Wilma

At the time they were calling it a Category 3, and I remember thinking "Holy shit! If this is a "three", I don't wanna know what a "five" is like!" We'd taken in everything that wasn't nailed down, but that wasn't enough. I remember looking outside and seeing satellite dishes being blown about like so much chaff, just before the window shattered when an orange from a neighbor's tree hit it. The wind hit the trees so hard that the earth beneath them rose and fell as if it were breathing, a truly eerie phenomenon I'd never even heard of.

Once you've lived through something like that you respect the power of nature. All of South Florida came to a virtual standstill for weeks. Power lines were blown down, trees blocked almost every street, and the roofs of buildings had peeled off like so many post-it notes. Amazingly, only one death occurred in the US as a direct result of Wilma - a lady standing right next to window was killed by flying glass.

After Andrew we Floridians take hurricanes seriously, thank the gods. At least during Wilma no fools were trying to surf or holding parties on the beach!

[tannybogus]

8. Richelieu Apartments

There were a group of young people who wouldn't leave. They said they were

going to stay and have a hurricane party. The apartments were blown away,

and the people were never seen again.

[1]

15. i think once a hurricane passes the 5 category, it doesn't much matter anymore...

that's like the upper bound of "all things we know are going to get destroyed."

i think that's why they stop at 5...

[Catshrink]

16. My nephew in the guard was told to get ready.

They haven't been deployed yet, but expect to. His unit was deployed to Mississippi in the aftermath of Katrina.

[Fumesucker]

20. An interesting and entertaining read on hurricanes..

Catastrophic warming produces superhurricanes that scour the land to bedrock.

http://www.amazon.com/Mother-Storms-John-Barnes/dp/0812533453

A friend suggested this book to read for a bit of relaxation and I wasn't disappointed. Though it starts a bit slow in order to introduce all the myriad characters, it builds up steam and does quite well to keep the attention there. Some of the scenario is not unlike the movie "The day after tomorrow", as the key element is a global superstorm, which effects the whole world, sparing no place.

John Barnes must have gone to a great deal of research as the scenario with massive amount of methane being released from the ocean floor is not so far fetched, as research in the last few years have shown the potentially devastating effect on the climate that this can have. I also liked his take on mass entertainment of the future, where people can plug in to a 3D type reality show, where the audience can experience all the emotions and sensations that the actors go through. Some novel ideas in there and some pretty creepy situations too.

[Breeze54]

26. "entertaining read"?

:puke:

[Fumesucker]

27. You might be able to learn something..

And "adventure" is sometimes defined as "someone a long way away going through a very hard time".

You've never enjoyed a book or movie where anything bad happens?

[tannybogus]

21. A great read about Hurricane Katrina!

However, by the time I finished it, I couldn't decide who I wanted to strangle first.