Thanks for sites! Yeah...i'm familiar with the controversies over the rating system....a similar debate erupted after the 312mph sustained vortex velocity wasmeasured in the 1999 Missouri tornado outbreak... Not sure it's ever gonna fly, however, because at the end of the day, we gotta ask our selves: what difference does it really make? 180mph winds and 200mph winds are so deep into the ends of catastrophe that it becomes splitting hairs defining whether something is merely obliterated versus denuded off the face of the planet - either way...no difference. I guess the debate gets more heated, however, as building technologies evolve to the point where they are theoretically designed to withstand the heavier assaults; in which case, a category 6 might have more meaning... But, until that time, anything over a 155mph sustained is for the most part going to get you to the same result: FUBAR!
just my opionion but i don't think the next category should be "6" per say...it should say "Maximum", because, believe it or not, there is a theoretical limitation to the amount of intensity a hurricane can have for terran based physics - those equations that must incorporate everthing from gravitation constants, latent heat availability and pressure dicontinuities (which ultimately give rise to differential advection patterns and even U/A mechanics such as anticyclonics for that matter...). There is an upper theoretical limit.... The trouble is, that limit is different for every environment so the Maximum category is more at universally intended; such as, a hurricane will never have winds of "300mph on Earth because it is physically impossible"... So for all plausibilities included, Maximum means anything that is virtually stronger than a category 5 because that category certainly approaches theoretical limitations to begin with. Maximum has a usefulness in the sense that it informs people that it is at the theoretical limitation of how awesome it can be....?