diameter set by a hailstone 7 inches (18 cm) diameter and 18.75 inches (47.

6 cm) circumference which fell in Aurora, Nebraska in

the United States on 22 June 2003, as well as the record for weight, set by a hailstone of 1.67 pounds (0.76 kg) that fell
in Coffeyville, Kansas in 1970.[31]

Various hazards, ranging from hail to lightning can affect outside technology facilities, such as antennas, satellite dishes, and
towers. As a result, companies with outside facilities have begun installing such facilities underground, to reduce the risk of damage
from storms.[32]

Substantial snowfall can disrupt public infrastructure and services, slowing human activity even in regions that are accustomed to
such weather. Air and ground transport may be greatly inhibited or shut down entirely. Populations living in snow-prone areas have
developed various ways to travel across the snow, such as skis, snowshoes, and sleds pulled by horses, dogs, or other animals and
later, snowmobiles. Basic utilities such as electricity, telephone lines, and gas supply can also fail. In addition, snow can make roads
much harder to travel and vehicles attempting to use them can easily become stuck. [33]

Kyasudam/slf, concrete or steel frame construction, multi-story concrete parking garages, and residences that are made of either
reinforced brick or concrete/cement block and have hipped roofs with slopes of no less than 35 degrees from horizontal and no
overhangs of any kind, and if the windows are either made of hurricane-resistant safety glass or covered with shutters. Unless most
of these requirements are met, the catastrophic destruction of a structure may occur. [11]

The storm's flooding causes major damage to the lower floors of all structures near the shoreline. Many coastal structures can be
completely flattened or washed away by the storm surge. Virtually all trees are uprooted or snapped and some may be debarked,
isolating most affected communities. Massive evacuation of residential areas may be required if the hurricane threatens populated
areas. Total and extremely long-lived power outages and water losses are to be expected, possibly for up to several months. [11]

Historical examples of storms that made landfall at Category 5 status

include: "Cuba" (1924), "Okeechobee" (1928), "Bahamas" (1932), "Cuba–Brownsville" (1933), "Labor
Day" (1935), Janet (1955), Inez (1966), Camille (1969), Edith (1971), Anita (1977), David (1979), Gilbert (1988), Andrew (1992), De
an (2007), Felix (2007), Irma (2017),[19] Maria (2017),[20] Michael (2018),[21] Dorian (2019), and Otis (2023) (the only Pacific hurricane
to make landfall at Category 5 intensity).

Criticism
[edit]
Some scientists, including Kerry Emanuel and Lakshmi Kantha, have criticized the scale as being too simplistic, namely that the
scale takes into account neither the physical size of a storm nor the amount of precipitation it produces.[13] They and others point out
that the Saffir–Simpson scale, unlike the moment magnitude scale used to measure earthquakes, is not continuous, and
is quantized into a small number of categories. Proposed replacement classifications include the Hurricane Intensity Index, which is
based on the dynamic pressure caused by a storm's winds, and the Hurricane Hazard Index, which is based on surface wind
speeds, the radius of maximum winds of the storm, and its translational velocity.[22][23] Both of these scales are continuous, akin to the
Richter scale.[24] However, neither of these scales has been used by officials.[citation needed]

Proposed extensions
[edit]
After the series of powerful storm systems of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, as well as after Hurricane Patricia, a few
newspaper columnists and scientists brought up the suggestion of introducing Category 6. They have suggested pegging
Category 6 to storms with winds greater than 174 or 180 mph (78 or 80 m/s; 151 or 156 kn; 280 or 290 km/h).[13][25] Fresh calls were
made for consideration of the issue after Hurricane Irma in 2017,[26] which was the subject of a number of seemingly credible false
news reports as a "Category 6" storm,[27] partly in consequence of so many local politicians using the term. Only a few storms of this
intensity have been recorded.

Of the 42 hurricanes currently considered to have attained Category 5 status in the Atlantic, 19 had wind speeds at 175 mph
(78 m/s; 152 kn; 282 km/h) or greater. Only 9 had wind speeds at 180 mph (80.5 m/s; 156 kn; 290 km/h) or greater (the 1935 Labor
Day hurricane, Allen, Gilbert, Mitch, Rita, Wilma, Irma, Dorian, and Milton). Of the 21 hurricanes currently considered to have
attained Category 5 status in the eastern Pacific, only 5 had wind speeds at 175 mph (78 m/s; 152 kn; 282 km/h) or greater
(Patsy, John, Linda, Rick, and Patricia). Only 3 had wind speeds at 180 mph (80.5 m/s; 156 kn; 290 km/h) or greater (Linda, Rick,
and Patricia).

Most storms which would be eligible for this category were typhoons in the western Pacific, most notably
typhoons Tip, Halong, Mawar, and Bolaven in 1979, 2019, 2023 and 2023 respectively, each with sustained winds of 190 mph
(305 km/h),[28] and typhoons Haiyan, Meranti, Goni, and Surigae in 2013, 2016, 2020 and 2021 respectively, each with sustained
winds of 195 mph (315 km/h).
 Occasionally, suggestions of using even higher wind speeds as the cutoff have been made. In a newspaper article published in
November 2018, NOAA research scientist Jim Kossin said that the potential for more intense hurricanes was increasing as
the climate warmed, and suggested that Category 6 would begin at 195 mph (85 m/s; 170 kn; 315 km/h), with a further hypothetical
Category 7 beginning at 230 mph (105 m/s; 200 kn; 370 km/h).[29] In 2024 another proposal to add "Category 6" was made, with a
minimum wind speed of 192 mph (309 km/h), with risk factors such as the effects of climate change and warming ocean
temperatures part of that research.[30] In the NHC area of responsibility, only Patricia had winds greater than 190 mph (85 m/s;
165 kn; 305 km/h).

According to Robert Simpson, co-creator of the scale, there are no reasons for a Category 6 on the Saffir–Simpson scale because it
is designed to measure the potential damage of a hurricane to human-made structures. Simpson explained that "... when you get up
into winds in excess of 155 mph (249 km/h) you have enough damage if that extreme wind sustains itself for as much as six
seconds on a building it's going to cause rupturing damages that are serious no matter how well it's engineered." [6] Nonetheless, the
counties of Broward and Miami-Dade in Florida have building codes which require that critical infrastructure buildings be able to
withstand Category 5 winds.[31]

See also
[edit]

 Tropical cyclones portal

 Beaufort scale – Relates wind speed to observable conditions at sea and on land
 Enhanced Fujita scale – For tornado intensity with damage correlated to wind speeds. The system was also intended for
applicability in hurricanes, and is utilized by engineers in hurri
major civil aircraft accidents caused by wind shear has dropped to approximately one every ten years, due to the mandated on-
board detection as well as the addition of Doppler weather radar units on the ground. (NEXRAD)[49]

Recreation
Many winter sports, such as skiing,[50] snowboarding,[51] snowmobiling,[52] and snowshoeing depend upon snow. Where snow is scarce
but the temperature is low enough, snow cannons may be used to produce an adequate amount for such sports.[53] Children and
adults can play on a sled or ride in a sleigh. Although a person's footsteps remain a visible lifeline within a snow-covered landscape,
snow cover is considered a general danger to hiking since the snow obscures landmarks and makes the landscape itself appear
uniform.[54]

Notable storms in art and culture

The Great Wave off Kanagawa, an 1831 ukiyo-e print by Hokusai

In mythology and literature

According to the Bible, a giant storm sent by God flooded the Earth. Noah and his family and the animals entered the Ark, and "the
same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, and the rain was upon the
earth forty days and forty nights." The flood covered even the highest mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet, and all
creatures died; only Noah and those with him on the Ark were left alive. In the New Testament, Jesus Christ is recorded to have
calmed a storm on the Sea of Galilee.

See also: Genesis flood myth

The Gilgamesh flood myth is a deluge story in the Epic of Gilgamesh.

In Greek mythology Aeolus, keeper of storm-winds, squalls and tempests.

The Sea Venture was wrecked near Bermuda in 1609, which led to the colonization of Bermuda[55] and provided the inspiration
for Shakespeare's play The Tempest(1611).[56] Specifically, Sir Thomas Gates, future governor of Virginia, was on his way to
England from Jamestown, Virginia. On Saint James Day, while he was between Cuba and the Bahamas, a hurricane raged for
nearly two days. Though one of the small vessels in the fleet sank to the bottom of the Florida Straits, seven of the remaining
vessels reached Virginia within several days after the storm. The flagship of the fleet, known as Sea Adventure, disappeared and
was presumed lost. A small bit of fortune befell the ship and her crew when they made landfall on Bermuda. The vessel was
damaged on a surrounding coral reef, but all aboard survived for nearly a year on the island. The British colonists claimed the island
and quickly settled Bermuda. In May 1610, they set forth for Jamestown, this time arriving at their destination.

The children's novel The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, written by L. Frank Baum and illustrated by W. W. Denslow, chronicles the
adventures of a young girl named Dorothy Gale in the Land of Oz, after being swept away from her Kansas farm home by a
tornado. The story was originally published by the George M. Hill Company in Chicago on 17 May 1900, and has since been
reprinted numerous times, most often under the name The Wizard of Oz, and adapted for use in other media. Thanks in part to
the 1939 MGM movie, it is one of the best-known stories in American popular culture and has been widely translated. Its initial
success, and the success of the popular 1902 Broadway musical which Baum adapted from his original story, led to Baum's writing
thirteen more Oz books.

Hollywood director King Vidor (8 February 1894 – 1 November 1982) survived the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 as a boy. Based on
that experience, he published a fictionalized account of that cyclone, titled "Southern Storm", for the May 1935 issue
of Esquire magazine. Erik Larson excerpts a passage from that article in his 2005 book, Isaac's Storm:[57]

I remember now that it seemed as if we were in a bowl looking up toward the level of the sea. As we stood there in the
sandy street, my mother and I, I wanted to take my mother's hand and hurry her away. I felt as if the sea was going to
break over the edge of the bowl and come puring down upon us.

Numerous other accounts of the Galveston Hurricane of 1900 have been made in print and in film. Larson cites many of them
in Isaac's Storm, which centrally features that storm, as well as chronicles the creation of the Weather Bureau (which came to
known as the National Weather Service) and that agency's fateful rivalry with the weather service in Cuba, and a number of
other major storms, such as those which ravaged Indianola, Texas in 1875 and 1886.[57]

The Great Storm of 1987 is key in an important scene near the end of Possession: A R