re: New Category 6 Hurricane Classification Proposed Due to Climate Change

Fun fact, a Category 3 storm can cause more damage than a Category 5 storm.

It just matters where it hits, size, trajectory in relation to the coast, and many other factors. So you almost need a different calculation simulator to determine a scale of intensity.

For example Katrina was slowly dying as a Cat 3 when she hit the coast. Yes she was Cat 5 in the gulf, but the winds were starting to subside spread out affecting a much larger area. Also dry air was getting sucked into the system. I can remember seeing a radar where there was a pocket of no rain around Houma, but the winds were still whipping. With that said, the storm surge still hadn't subsided as much as what a Category 3 storm would have.

Fast forward to Ida where the winds were whipping well over 150 MPH in Fourchon. Ida was much more compact and had less of an impact to New Orleans besides power outages and a few significantly damaged buildings. It had a greater impact on the bayou region, but her compact eye and the fact that she did not lose steam until she was well inland made her a much stronger storm, but the impacts were less overall than Katrina. The storm surge did not have nearly as much time to build and the focal point of land fall did not impact the Mississippi Gulf Coast as Katrina.

That is why Categories for storms are a mixed bag of information.