AccuWeather meteorologists are tracking two high-risk areas across the Atlantic basin that will contend to become the next ...

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

"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.