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This proposal has been met with resistance, however, since some fear that a new category could encourage people to dismiss Category 5 hurricanes, despite their potential to cause catastrophic damage.
Given that hurricanes are also becoming more intense as ocean temperatures rise, some scientists have also made the case for adding a Category 6 to the existing Saffir-Simpson scale.
We may be some way off an ideal solution when it comes to classifying hurricanes. What seems clear for the moment, however, is that the Saffir-Simpson scale cannot be considered the single source of truth.
The public would likely benefit from more detailed information about each potential hurricane, particularly when it comes to surges and rainfall flooding.
Sources: (BBC) (NOAA)
The rationale for this is that there have already been hurricanes that surpassed the theoretical threshold for Category 6, and there is no reason to cap it.
As a practical solution to the problem, some experts are calling for the introduction of a traffic light system to classify hurricanes.
This would enable people to understand the personal level of risk to which they are exposed, and to take the necessary precautions.
The basic idea would be simply to rate the magnitude of risk for each hurricane on a color scale and issue a yellow, amber, or red alert.
The TIKE metric measures the size of the wind field, along with the intensity and overall lifespan of the storm. It relies on satellites rather than using reconnaissance aircraft.
There are still significant challenges to overcome before scientists can rely on TIKE, however. For example, cloud cover during hurricanes can make it difficult to get accurate data.
Examples like this are one of the reasons that scientists are pushing for a new system of hurricane classification that considers water damage.
Indeed, Sandy caused severe coastal flooding, which destroyed hundreds of thousands of homes and led to damage totaling around US$88.5 billion.
Bearing this in mind, meteorology professor Vasu Misra has developed a new metric to measure the destructive power of hurricanes.
At its peak intensity, Sandy was a Category 3 hurricane when it made landfall in Cuba. However, it did most of its damage after becoming a Category 1 hurricane while off the coast of the Northeastern United States.
It is known as Track Integrated Kinetic Energy (or TIKE) and is meant to complement, rather than replace, the Saffir-Simpson scale.
Let's take Hurricane Sandy as an example. This extremely large tropical cyclone ravaged large areas of the Caribbean and coastal United States in October 2012.
Another limitation of the Saffir-Simpson scale is that it does not consider the overall size of a hurricane, nor the horizontal distribution of the winds.
Indeed, according to the Florida Climate Center at Florida State University, 90% of all hurricane-related deaths globally are caused by drowning.
In order to measure wind speed, the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) flies reconnaissance aircraft over the sea in affected areas.
These aircraft drop instruments that measure the pressure, direction, and speed of the wind as they fall towards the sea.
While the Saffir-Simpson scale is widely recognized and is considered an effective way to estimate potential property damage, it has several limitations.
Firstly, and perhaps most importantly, it does not take into account other potentially deadly hurricane impacts, such as storm surge, heavy rainfall, or flooding.
This is significant when we consider that the greatest threat to life in the event of a hurricane comes from water, not from wind.
This drowning could either be the result of storm surges or flooding caused by extreme rainfall as the result of the hurricane.
The Saffir-Simpson scale ranks hurricanes on a scale of 1 to 5, based on their maximum sustained wind speed. A Category 5 hurricane is the most intense.
When hurricane warnings are issued, experts usually refer to the category of the hurricane. A Category 1 hurricane is considered the least dangerous, and is characterized by having a sustained wind speed of 74-95 mph (119-153 km/h). A Category 5 hurricane is the most severe, with wind speeds of 157 mph (525 km/h) or higher. This way of categorizing hurricanes, which is known as the Saffir-Simpson scale, has been around for decades. But it is not without its flaws.
Indeed, there's a problem with the way we measure hurricanes. Check out this gallery to learn more.
Developed by civil engineer Herbert Saffir and meteorologist Robert Simpson in the early 1970s, the Saffir-Simpson scale has been used to categorize hurricanes for more than 50 years.
The approach could be more personalized, with an app that provides people with information about the probability that various severe weather events will occur in their area.
It would be along the lines of the system that the UK Met Office currently uses for ordinary weather forecasts.
The system currently used to classify hurricanes in the northeastern Pacific Ocean and North Atlantic Ocean is the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale (SSHWS). It is more commonly referred to as the Saffir-Simpson scale.
The problem with the way we measure hurricanes
Why the Saffir-Simpson scale is not sufficient
LIFESTYLE Meteorology
When hurricane warnings are issued, experts usually refer to the category of the hurricane. A Category 1 hurricane is considered the least dangerous, and is characterized by having a sustained wind speed of 74-95 mph (119-153 km/h). A Category 5 hurricane is the most severe, with wind speeds of 157 mph (525 km/h) or higher. This way of categorizing hurricanes, which is known as the Saffir-Simpson scale, has been around for decades. But it is not without its flaws.
Indeed, there's a problem with the way we measure hurricanes. Check out this gallery to learn more.