The hypothetical new label could go to any tropical cyclone with sustained winds of at least 192 mph — an intensity that five storms have surpassed since 2013, the scientists said.
Determining if Category-6-equivalent hurricanes are indeed beginning to ramp up in frequency because of climate change is hampered by our poor ability to observe intense hurricanes. To illustrate: Satellite measurements indicated that the Eastern Pacific’s Hurricane Patricia of 2015 was a Category 5 storm with about 180 mph winds. However, the Hurricane Hunters found that Patricia had peak winds of 205 mph during the time when their plane was in the storm. (Patricia continued to intensify after the Hurricane Hunters left, and is thought to have peaked with winds of an unimaginable 215 mph.) If the Hurricane Hunters had not collected this data, we may not have known whether Patricia had met the threshold of 195 mph winds needed to classify it as a Category 6.
There have been a bunch of 200mph+ ones: