Hurricane category 6 could be introduced under new storm severity scale

It’s my understanding that “category 5” means “total destruction”, which is why this hasn’t been done in the past. However if it helps to get the point across about climate change, it would be helpful for marketing purposes.

Sorry but that reason for a change feels very coercive. If cat 5 is intended to be total destruction, meaning that anything above the lower bounds for a cat 5 is indistinguishable, there should be no 6.

Hurricane categories just mean that winds are above a certain threshold. For cat 5 I think it’s 157mph, and that means if the hurricane has winds of eg 170mph it’s still a category 5.

Another problem with this system is that some category 2 or even 1 hurricanes can cause incredible devastation, depending on where they hit. But people see category 1 and they assume it’ll be nothing.

I think you’re referencing the tornado EF scale, not the hurricane Saffir-Simpson scale.

That's not what the proposed change is about. (It's about replacing the scale with a different one that takes into account flooding and other dangers that better reflect the likelihood of fatalities than just wind speed alone. Category 1 hurricanes can sometimes be more dangerous than higher-category hurricanes under the current scale.) I worry that people might not take this seriously because they assume this is a frivolous rebranding to "market" climate change.

That's not what this is. (The person you're responding to didn't read the article.) They're not looking to add a "total-er destruction" category; they're looking to replace the current scale with one that takes into account more factors than just wind speed, such as storm surge and flooding. Under the current scale, a category 1 hurricane can be deadlier and more destructive than a higher-category hurricane. They want to use a different scale that better indicates the dangers. It goes up to 6 when multiple factors rate 5 on each factor's specific scale under the proposed system.

I think the title of this article is misleading and clickbaity. :/

Total destruction could be “total human-scale destruction”.

You could have “geological changes” above that; reroutes rivers, moves mountains, etc.

Exhibit A

Category 6 could also be useful in that it implies multiple threats to avoid.

Evacuation strategies for a cat 5 that’s just storm surge is very different than one that is wind and rain. Either way you lose the city, but with the latter, moving to high ground won’t save you.