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

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

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

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.

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.

But so far, it's been hard to switch because Americans, everyone knows that Saffir-Simpson scale. Everyone understands hurricane Category 1 through 5.

Erin continues to grow in size, trying to restrengthen to a category 3 hurricane before passing to our east. At 11pm, the center of Hurricane Erin was located near latitude 32.8 North, longitude 73.1 ...

Hurricane Erin moves offshore but still threatens East Coast with dangerous surf, rip currents, and tropical winds. This live blog is now closed.

"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.