The scale has been in use for decades and gives an idea about what kind of wind damage a hurricane can produce.

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. From grocery stores to neighborhoods, a hurricane's category might be among the most discussed aspects of a threatening storm.

The already dangerously powerful Category 5 hurricane Melissa surged up to 180 mph maximum sustained winds with gusts over 210 mph Tuesday morning, Oct. 28, according to an update from the National ...

Should there be a new designation for a Category 6 hurricane? It's been an idea that's been proposed dozens of times over the years, adding a new, stronger category to the Saffir-Simpson scale, and a ...

It’s been a slow hurricane season, but some tropical storms could intensify. Is there a Category 6? Here’s what the experts ...

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The easiest and most straightforward way to measure a hurricane's strength is to use the Saffir-Simpson scale. Divided into five categories, the scale designates each hurricane ...

TAMPA, Fla. — Hurricane Isaias is continuing its path through the Gulf as a Category 2 storm, expected to reach near Category 3 strength before making landfall in the U.S. early Saturday. We know ...

As a small child growing up in Florida in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when a hurricane hit, there were no categories like we have today to describe the storm’s wind intensity. This writer just ...

One was a structural engineer who thought in the ways engineers are trained to — logically and result-oriented. The other, was a meteorologist who, at age 6, had survived one of the deadliest ...