A new study shows that we have a lot to worry about when it comes to changing hurricanes as the planet warms.

In little more than a day, Hurricane Florence exploded in strength, jumping from a Category 1 to a Category 4 behemoth with 140 mph winds. This process "hurricanes intensifying fast" is both extremely dangerous and poorly understood. But new research says that as the climate continues to warm, storms will do it faster and more often, and in some extreme cases, grow so powerful that they might arguably be labeled Category 6.

Last year's Hurricane Maria, for instance, spun up from a mere tropical depression into a Category 5 storm in just over two days; or 2015's Hurricane Patricia, whose winds in the Eastern Pacific exceeded 210 mph, more than 50 mph stronger than the weakest Category 5 storms.

Recently, some scientists have begun speaking about a possible “Category 6" designation, though there is considerable debate over whether that’s really a good idea. Clearly, though, some recent storms would qualify, most notably Patricia but also 2013's Super Typhoon Haiyan and several others.
"It’s what you expect if you have a shift toward more intense storms, is that you’ll start seeing intensities you haven't seen before,” said Gabriel Vecchi, an atmospheric scientist at Princeton who was one of the study's authors.

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