Hurricane force winds how fast

Category 4 hurricanes have winds that range from to mph. Small residences may suffer complete roof structure failure in these storms.

Additionally, beach erosion is extensive. When wind speed exceeds mph, it is a Category 5 hurricane. Many residences and commercial and industrial buildings will experience complete roof failure in these storms. Heavy flooding is typical with massive evacuations required. Hurricane Andrew, which made landfall in Florida in , was a Category 5 hurricane.

Your browser does not support the video tag. Quick Links and Additional Resources. Very dangerous winds will produce some damage: Well-constructed frame homes could have damage to roof, shingles, vinyl siding and gutters.

Large branches of trees will snap and shallowly rooted trees may be toppled. Extensive damage to power lines and poles likely will result in power outages that could last a few to several days. Extremely dangerous winds will cause extensive damage: Well-constructed frame homes could sustain major roof and siding damage. An extrapolation of the scale suggests that if a Category 6 were created, it would be in the range of mph. And as of Tuesday morning Sept. Irma is churning about miles kilometers east of Antigua and miles km east-southeast of Barbuda, the NHC says.

How much faster could hurricane winds blow? A hurricane gains strength by using warm water as fuel.

With Earth's climate warming, oceans may grow warmer, too. And so, some scientists predict, hurricanes might become stronger. When asked to rate potential damage from a category one hurricane to a category two or three storm most people's results are often linear in increasing damage.

However, since the potential damage increase from category to category is logarithmic then small increases in wind strength can dramatically increase damage.

When the cost from hurricane related damages are normalized normalization takes into account inflation, changes in population, and changes in wealth to arrive at a common level for comparison the result shows an eighth-power increase 1 in damages from category to category. What this means is the potential damage from a hurricane is 2 8 power. These values indicate the multiple increase in damage potential ABOVE damage that occurs with a 75 mph hurricane.

Note the rapid increase in potential damage just within each category.