Hurricanes becoming so strong that new category needed, study says

Scientists propose new category 6 rating to classify ‘mega-hurricanes’, becoming more likely due to climate crisis

Hurricanes are becoming so strong due to the climate crisis that the classification of them should be expanded to include a “category 6” storm, furthering the scale from the standard 1 to 5, according to a new study.

Over the past decade, five storms would have been classed at this new category 6 strength, researchers said, which would include all hurricanes with sustained winds of 192mph or more. Such mega-hurricanes are becoming more likely due to global heating, studies have found, due to the warming of the oceans and atmosphere.

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‘The children screamed for hours’: horrors of Hurricane Otis leave devastation for Acapulco’s poorest

Mexico’s Pacific coast was battered by 165mph winds and torrential rain on 25 October. Thousands lost their homes and many now have too little food or water to survive

In the small hours of Wednesday 25 October, Josefina Maldonado, a grandmother of two in her 60s who lives in the Renacimiento district of Acapulco, watched as the corrugated metal roof of her home flew into the sky, ripped off by 165mph (270km/h) winds. The family home and everything and everyone in it, including two terrified small children, were prey to the torrential rain and the horrors of the hurricane. Most of the furniture, including the beds, was swept away.

“It wasn’t that the wind or the water was stronger. Both were working together,” Maldonado says. “We were up all night trying to save what we could, and the children screamed and cried for hours.”

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Acapulco: nearly 100 dead and missing after Hurricane Otis, officials say

Governor of Guerrero state says 45 confirmed dead and 47 others missing after ferocious storm hit Mexican city on Wednesday

The number of people dead and missing due to Hurricane Otis, a category 5 storm which hammered the Mexican Pacific resort city of Acapulco last week, has risen to close to 100.

Otis battered Acapulco with winds of 165mph (266km/h) on Wednesday, flooding the city, tearing roofs from homes, hotels and other businesses, submerging vehicles and severing communications as well as road and air connections.

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Acapulco death toll rises to 43 after Hurricane Otis batters resort city

Guerrero state governor says officials assessing damage after unprecedented 165mph storm hit Mexico’s Pacific coast

The death toll from a devastating hurricane that hit the Mexican beach resort of Acapulco last week has risen to 43, the governor of Guerrero state has said.

Evelyn Salgado added that electricity had been restored to 58% of Acapulco and that officials had visited 10,000 families there and the nearby city of Coyuca de Benitez for a census to evaluate damages.

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Clean up and damage assessments begin after Hurricane Otis rips through

Category 5 storm struck Acapulco and leveled homes, hotels and cut off communications as military called in to help with aid efforts

At least 27 people were killed and four remain missing after Hurricane Otis ripped through the beach resort city of Acapulco, leveling homes and hotels, submerging cars and cutting off communications.

The extent of the damage from the category 5 storm, which struck Mexico on Thursday with winds of 165mph, has started to become clear as thousands of first responders and military officers began to assess the damages. Nearly 8,400 members of Mexico’s army, air force and national guard were deployed to assist in cleanup efforts, the defense ministry said.

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At least 27 dead after Hurricane Otis smashes into Mexico’s Pacific coast

The resort city of Acapulco was devastated by the category 5 hurricane, with hundreds of windows blown out and electricity cut

At least 27 people died due to Hurricane Otis and four others were still missing, Mexico’s government said after one of the most powerful storms to hit the country smashed into the Pacific resort city of Acapulco a day before.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said the government was working to re-establish power and clean up the devastation wrought by the category 5 hurricane that tore through the southern state of Guerrero, and left Acapulco incommunicado.

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Hurricane Otis rips through Acapulco as communications to city severed

Powerful category 5 storm hits Mexico’s coast leaving trail of destruction, though full scale of damage remains unclear

Hurricane Otis has smashed through the Mexican resort city of Acapulco as a category 5 storm, wrecking homes, hotels and hospitals, and leaving a trail of destruction, but with communications to the city still severed the full scale of the devastation remained unclear.

As dawn broke on Wednesday, photos and videos posted online showed wrecked buildings and cars partially submerged in floodwaters as authorities in the southern state of Guerrero attempted to take a measure of the damage.

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An Alabama man vanished in 1995. Last week, Idalia cleanup crews found a body

Team clearing hurricane debris uncovered skeletal remains that police believe are of man who went missing on road trip to Florida

A decades-old car, a battered Sam’s Club membership card and human remains found in the water during a clean-up in Florida from Hurricane Idalia might have solved a cold case missing persons mystery, say authorities.

Crews clearing storm debris from the Steinhatchee River in Dixie county, close to where the 125mph cyclone struck the coast in August, made the grim discovery last week as they removed a damaged boat dock from a ramp.

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Tropical Storm Ophelia makes landfall in North Carolina as it moves up east coast

Governors of Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland declare states of emergency as storm expected to bring heavy rainfall

Tropical Storm Ophelia made landfall on the coast of North Carolina near Emerald Isle early on Saturday as the storm moved north along the US east coast.

Before the storm’s landfall, the governors of Virginia, North Carolina and Maryland declared states of emergency. Ophelia was predicted to bring heavy rainfall, tropical-storm-force winds and minor flooding along the states’ coasts through the weekend.

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Tropical Storm Ophelia threatens wind, rain and storm surge for US mid-Atlantic

North Carolina and Virginia governors declare states of emergency ahead of expected landfall on Saturday morning

Tropical Storm Ophelia formed off the mid-Atlantic coast and was expected to bring heavy rain, storm surge and windy conditions over the weekend, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Friday.

Ophelia had maximum sustained winds of 60mph (95km/h), according to a 2pm advisory from the Miami-based center. The storm was centered 150 miles (240km) south-east of Cape Fear, North Carolina, and was forecast to make landfall on Saturday morning.

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Power outages and one death as Storm Lee swings away from Canadian coast

Tens of thousands without power in New England and Nova Scotia as other potentially dangerous tempests hover over the Atlantic

Tens of thousands in New England and Canada remained without power on Sunday morning after the deadly storm Lee struck Nova Scotia on Saturday afternoon as a post-tropical cyclone.

In Nova Scotia, nearly 100,000 customers were without power, according to PowerOutage.com. The US state of Maine was dealing with about 40,000 outages as of Sunday morning, and New Brunswick had about 12,000, the website also said.

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Tropical cyclone Lee makes landfall in Nova Scotia as thousands lose power

Storm expected to approach New Brunswick, bringing winds of 70mph and relentless rainfall

Post-tropical cyclone Lee made landfall in Nova Scotia, Canada, on Saturday afternoon hours after it battered New England and eastern Canada with powerful winds and rains.

The storm cut off electricity to tens of thousands and inundated coastal roads in Nova Scotia, and left at least one person dead, according to the Associated Press. The 51-year-old man died after a tree limb fell onto his vehicle as he was driving in Searsport, Maine. The tree felled live power lines and workers had to turn off electricity before the man could be taken from his vehicle. He died at a hospital.

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Biden approves state of emergency for Maine as Hurricane Lee approaches

Canada issues hurricane watch for parts of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, with storm expected to bring high winds and flooding

Joe Biden has declared a state of emergency in Maine as Hurricane Lee rapidly approaches the north-easternmost US state amid the likelihood of a landfall there or more likely in Canada over the weekend.

About 7 million people are now under tropical storm warnings across Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The Canadian Hurricane Center also issued a hurricane watch for parts of the provinces of New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

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Maine and Atlantic Canada face flood warnings as Hurricane Lee heads north

Storm, which has already brought strong winds and heavy rain to Bermuda, is weakening in strength but expanding in size

Parts of coastal New England and Atlantic Canada are under a tropical storm watch this week as Hurricane Lee continues on its path upward.

With maximum sustained winds of up to 100mph, Lee was 265 miles south-west of Bermuda as of Thursday morning, the National Hurricane Center said.

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Hurricane Lee heads north with landfall expected in Nova Scotia or Maine

Storm threatens to affect parts of Bermuda, New England and Atlantic Canada with winds up to 115mph

Hurricane Lee continues to grow larger in size as it moves northward and threatens to affects parts of Bermuda, New England and Atlantic Canada.

Moving at 7mph (11.3km/h) and packing winds of up to 115mph (185km/h), Lee was positioned 380 miles (612km) north of the northern Leeward Islands as well as 600 miles (965km) south of Bermuda, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) said on Monday evening. That track triggered a tropical storm watch for Bermuda.

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Large swells batter Caribbean as Hurricane Lee churns waters nearby

Storm not forecast to make landfall but is expected to strengthen again on Sunday and Monday and turn north

Large swells battered the north-east Caribbean on Saturday as Hurricane Lee churned nearby through open waters as a category 3 storm.

The storm, which is not forecast to make landfall, was located about 350 miles (565km) east and north-east of the northern Leeward Islands. It had winds of up to 115mph (185kph) and was moving west and north-west at 12mph (19kph).

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Hurricane Lee prompts weekend beach warnings on US east coast

Dangerous surf and rip currents expected along most of Atlantic coast from Sunday, according to the National Hurricane Center

Hurricane Lee is making its way through the Atlantic Ocean and is expected to remain a powerful hurricane through early next week, prompting warnings of dangerous beach conditions on the US east coast over the weekend.

Between Wednesday and Thursday night, Lee evolved from a category 1 tropical storm to a category 5 hurricane. It then dropped down to a category 4 hurricane, the National Hurricane Center announced on Friday morning.

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Tropical storm could become ‘extremely dangerous’ hurricane, US experts warn

Lee, currently in Atlantic, could be upgraded to hurricane later on Wednesday with its track still unclear

A tropical storm in the Atlantic might soon turn into an “extremely dangerous” major hurricane, with its future track and chances of making a potentially devastating landfall still unclear, the National Hurricane Center said on Wednesday.

Tropical Storm Lee could turn into a hurricane later on Wednesday and intensify to a category 3 or higher by this weekend. The National Hurricane Center issued advisories in areas near the Caribbean Sea and the Gulf of Mexico.

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Biden tours Florida hurricane damage: ‘nobody can deny impacts of climate crisis’

President arrives to survey damage left by Hurricane Idalia but governor Ron DeSantis has no plans to meet Biden

Joe Biden said that no one can deny the impacts of the climate crisis anymore after he visited Florida on Saturday and surveyed the damage left behind by Hurricane Idalia.

Speaking to reporters in front of fallen trees and debris, the US president pointed to this year’s extreme weather events and disasters, saying: “Nobody can deny the impact of climate crisis. There’s no real intelligence to deny the impacts of the climate crisis anymore.”

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Weather tracker: Hurricane Idalia leaves trail of damage in Florida

Category 3 storm causes extensive flooding in south-east US, while heavy rain and winds also hit France and Italy

Hurricane Idalia struck northern Florida on Wednesday, bringing damaging winds and torrential rain. It made landfall near Keaton Beach on Florida’s Big Bend during the morning as a high-end category 3 hurricane, bringing sustained winds speeds near 125mph (200km/h) and a storm surge of 16ft along Florida’s north-west coastline.

Due to very warm sea surface temperatures, the storm strengthened rapidly over the Gulf of Mexico to category 4 status, before weakening to category 3 as it made landfall. It brought extensive flooding as it passed through and damaged power lines, leaving thousands without electricity.

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