Hurricane Erin raced from a Category 1 to a Category 5 storm. If Erin keeps ramping up, is there a Category 6?

Although the storm is expected to stay offshore, it will produce dangerous surf conditions for much of the Atlantic Coast ...

The longstanding hurricane rating system, the Saffir-Simpson Scale, only takes into account sustained wind speeds and not the ...

AccuWeather meteorologists are tracking two high-risk areas across the Atlantic basin that will contend to become the next ...

Let's break it down. Big Picture -What It Measures: As the name implies, the current version is strictly a wind scale that rates a hurricane's sustained winds (not gusts) from Category 1 through 5.

At that point, the NHC uses the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale of intensity to categorize it on a scale of 1-5.

Klotzbach presented on Tuesday at the National Hurricane Conference where he said pressure correlates better with hurricane damage than wind – which is what the Saffir-Simpson Scale identifies.

A major hurricane is classified as a Category 3 or higher on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. This means the storm has sustained winds of 111 miles per hour or greater.

The Saffir-Simpson scale of a hurricane's intensity is used to estimate potential property damage and coastal flooding caused by storm surge. The scale is determined by wind speed. Storm surge ...

"The Saffir-Simpson scale is a measure of wind speed. But far more people die from hurricane flooding than from strong winds. Hurricane Florence made landfall near Wilmington as a Category 1 storm.