Based on current ocean temps? If the Caribbean islands did not exist and it was just open ocean until the Florida coast would it hold steady in the 185-190 mph range or could it keep intensifying to over 200mph?
I’m aware of hypothetical future storms if ocean temps continue to rise, but currently is Irma in the ballpark of the maximum possible?
For those who don’t want to click through, it says: “Wow. Hurricane #Irma is now expected to exceed the theoretical maximum intensity for a storm in its environment. Redefining the rules.”
Irma is the most powerful storm on record. However, there’s no such thing as a category 6, and despite what you may have heard, they aren’t inventing a category 6 for Irma.
As for the OP, poking around on google, I found this:
Typhoon Tip is generally considered the biggest baddest butt-kicker there ever has been in all of recorded history … this motherfucker would have stretched from the Arizona/Mexico border to the Montana/Canada border … Irma’s just a puppy compared …
The difference between Pacific hurricanes (typhoons) and Atlantic hurricanes is simply mileage … Pacific Typhoons spend many more days out over the open ocean and build up more total energy than in the North Atlantic before they start interfacing with land …
In terms of maximum wind speed, and the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, then the answer to the OP is yes, at 185 mph peak wind speed is about as close to the maximum wind speed for a tropical cyclone as to make no difference … figuring in 10% margin of error, it’s not like we put precision measuring equipment in the eye wall or anything, bearly get an airplane to fly in that crap … anyway, no point on making a Category 6, we’d first need a good 30ºC - 40ºC global temperature increase before hurricanes can get higher wind speeds to make the new category necessary …
… and that’s a well known and understood problem with the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale …
However, the OP asks about “intensity”, and that generally means minimum central pressure … Irma’s 914 mb isn’t even top 10 in the Atlantic, so nowhere even close to the minimum pressure possible … Typhoon Tip holds the record at 870 mb, but there’s nothing in the physics that says the pressure can’t get any lower, although maybe not very much lower …
This seems to be widely claimed, but what’s the basis for it?
This wiki article says it has peak winds not quite as strong as the highest, shared with several others. Its lowest barometric pressure (currently 914 mb) doesn’t make the top 10.
There was an item in the paper yesterday explaining that the reason there is no category 6 is that the categories measure destructive potential and a category 5 is already going to destroy everything in its path, so higher levels would be meaningless.
Forgetting about theoretical category numbers, if the OP’s question relates to mph, then I believe it is always a possibility that future changing conditions might create hurricanes more powerful than Irma.
You found yourself some fake news … “The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale is a 1 to 5 rating based on a hurricane’s sustained wind speed.” {Cite} … we can relate damage caused to the various wind speeds, but the category of storm is strictly defined by top sustained wind speed …
The Fujita scale used for tornadoes is different and this scale is based on damage caused {WikiCite} … we can relate top wind speeds to the damage caused, but strictly speaking the Fujita scale is defined as damaged caused … meaning it’s different from Saffir-Simpson … the Enhanced Fujita scale includes criteria beyond damage to human structures, for example damage to trees and fields …
The maximum wind speed possible in a hurricane is based on the wide variety of frictional forces at hand … a small increase in temperature doesn’t really change the viscosity of the air (Handy Chart) nor does it have a material effect on boundary layer friction … remember when you watch the cool graphics of these hurricanes ploughing across the Caribbean, the height is about the thickness of a piece of paper at that scale …
The need for modern news media to keep their ratings high enough to sell ads?
Same thing happens up here in Minnesota in the winter – massive news predictions of a horrible blizzard that is coming, then when it arrives it’s just a moderate winter storm.
I guess in theory a hurricane can reach an infinite wind speed. Is there anything in the laws of physics preventing a hurricane from being 9,999,999 miles per hour?
Why would you think that? Hurricanes get their energy from temperature differentials between the ocean and the atmosphere. The oceans would boil away long before there was the potential to produce winds anything like that magnitude.
I think it’s kind of a subjective term. In the record books, Allen tops the charts with 190 mph winds sustained for 18 hours, but Irma had 185 mph winds for 37 hours (and gusts to 218, I couldn’t find gust info for Allen). One could argue that 185x37hrs is a lot more powerful than 190x18hrs. Those 185mph wind for 37 hours are the longest any hurricane has sustained winds like that. Irma has also broken the records for most Accumulated Cyclone Energy in the Atlantic and most Accumulated Cyclone Energy in 24 hours anywhere. So while she’ll probably be remembered as one of the strongest, it kind of depends on how you look at it.