From the paper: > "...of the 197 TCs [tropical cyclones] that were classified as category 5 during the 42-y period 1980 to 2021, which comprises the period of

From the paper: > "...of the 197 TCs [tropical cyclones] that were classified as category 5 during the 42-y period 1980 to 2021, which comprises the period of highest quality and most consistent data, half of them occurred in the last 17 y of the period (12). Five of those storms exceeded our hypothetical category 6 and all of these occurred in the last 9 y of the record. The most intense of these hypothetical category 6 storms, Patricia, occurred in the Eastern Pacific making landfall in Jalisco, Mexico, as a category 4 storm. The remaining category 6 storms all occurred in the Western Pacific... Fig. 1A shows these 5 storms on the existing Hurricane Wind Scale and our proposed extension." https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2308901121 https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2308901121 Theoretically, increased wind speeds are linked to increased sea surface temperatures, a warmer deeper ocean mixed layer, and more moistore in the atmosphere. However, increased vertical wind shear tends to break up the hurricane's chimney structure, and that might also increase with warming. Hence, a complicated prediction - but if conditions are right, it seems reasonable to conclude that unusually strong hurricanes will become more likely, even if overall frequency is unchanged.