NEW YORK, October 9. /TASS/. Hurricane Milton, currently moving towards the US state of Florida, may reach wind speeds that go beyond Category 5, currently the highest on the Saffir-Simpson scale, prompting a scientific debate about the need to add another tier to the international classficiation, Newsweek reported.

According to the report, gusts of wind brought by Milton reached the speed of 80 meters per second at some point, while Category 5 hurricanes envisages winds of up to 70 meters per second.

The magazine says that a study published by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory meteorologists proposed that a new Category 6 is needed for hurricanes that reach wind speeds of 85 meters per second (192 mph) or higher.

According to the paper, Category 5 storms have become increasingly common in recent years, with five of the storms between 1980 and 2021 reaching wind speeds that would classify them as Category 6 under this suggested framework.

In their opinion, the move would "raise awareness about the perils of the increased risk of major TCs [tropical cyclones] due to global warming."

At the same time, not all scientists share the opinion. They argue that Category 5 already implies devastation of catastrophic proportions, and it is unclear what the difference with Category 6 will be.

Apart from that, a number of scientists suggest drafting a totally new hurricane scale, because the existing one fails to take other parameters, such as rainfalls and storm surges, into account.

On Monday, US President Joe Biden signed an executive order to declare a state of emergency in Florida as Hurricane Milton headed toward Tampa, Florida. He also gave instructions to provide federal assistance to supplement state and local response efforts. Milton, which currently ranked as Category 4 storm, is expected to make landfall on Wednesday or early Thursday.

According to experts, apart from record winds, Milton is expected to bring destructive storm surge and flooding rain to a densely populated zone on Florida’s western coast that includes Tampa, Sarasota and Fort Myers.