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

Those categories are based on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, which is one tool for assessing the intensity of a hurricane, but it's important to know what it means in terms of wind ...

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

Hurricane Erin made headlines along the east coast of the U.S. this week, bringing high surf, rip currents, and coastal flooding from the Carolinas to the Northeast despite never officially making ...

Following a hurricane at a CATEGORY 4, most of an area will be “uninhabitable” for anywhere between weeks or months. CATEGORY 5: This is the highest category on the Saffir-Simpson wind scale.

Satellites operated by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration watched Hurricane Erin as it swirled off of the ...

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

"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.

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.