For First Time, Category 5 Hurricanes This Year Everywhere That It's Possible

Satellite view of Category 5 Typhoon Mawar in the
northwestern Pacific Ocean back in May. Click
on the pic to make it bigger and easier to see.
It was one of seven Category 5 storms this year that
hit each ocean basin that can have hurricanes.

 There are seven ocean basins in the world where hurricanes can form. 

For the first time on record, Category 5 hurricanes formed in all seven of them this year, notes the Washington Post. 

Category 5 hurricanes are the strongest you can get. They have sustained winds of 157 mph or greater. You don't want one of these hitting your neighborhood. 

Luckily most of these Category 5 hurricanes so far this year have not hit populated land areas at full strength. But the fact that we got such strong hurricanes is concerning for sure. 

The reason we had these super strong hurricanes everywhere is the oceans are hot, hot, hot. A combination  of El Nino, which tends to heat up global air and oceans and climate change as pushed overall  global sea surface temperatures to record highs. 

In general, the warmer the ocean, the greater the chance a hurricane can get stronger. 

Two storms in the past week completed the list of Category 5 storms everywhere. Last Wednesday, Hurricane Jova in the eastern Pacific Ocean reached the rarified status of a super strong storm. Scientists say the fact that a category 5 hurricane formed in the Pacific during an El Nino is not that surprising. El Nino tends to create favorable conditions for strong hurricanes in the Pacific. 

Hurricane Jova eventually moved westward into colder waters and weakened. 

But then, Hurricane Lee blew up in the Atlantic Ocean last week, briefly reaching Category 5 status. El Nino usually causes hostile atmospheric conditions for hurricanes in the Atlantic Ocean. Strong upper level winds usually weaken or even blow apart hurricanes. Still, Lee managed to become a Category 5, even though those strong upper level winds kept Lee's status as king of the hill pretty brief

 As we know, Lee eventually hit Nova Scotia and Maine Saturday as a destructive post-hurricane storm. 

Other storms in this year's rogues list of Category 5 hurricanes include Cyclone Freddy in the southwestern Indian Ocean last February. (Hurricanes are called cyclones in the Indian Ocean).

At its peak, Freddy had peak winds of 165 mph.  It also broke a world record for longevity, lasting five weeks. It caused quite a lot of destruction in eastern Africa. 

Next up was Cyclone Kevin, which rapidly intensified in the southwestern Pacific Ocean at the beginning of March. (Hurricanes in this zone are also called cyclones, like similar storms in the Indian Ocean).

Kevin reached peak intensity over open water, but even after weakening, it caused a lot of flooding and damaging winds on the island of Vanuatu, northeast of Australia, as the Washington Post notes. 

In April, another ocean basin that has hurricanes dealt with a Category 5 storm. This area is known as the Australian basin, which is basically the southeastern India Ocean. Cyclone Ilsa had top wind speeds of 160 mph and caused a lot of wind damage in remote settlements in Australia.

The northern India Ocean is considered yet another, separate ocean basin prone to hurricanes. In May, Cyclone Mocha rapidly intensified not long before landfall in Myanmar and Bangladesh, killing hundreds of people. Not long before landfall, Mocha had top winds of 175 mph. 

Finally in May, Super Typhoon Mawar developed in the northwestern Pacific  Ocean, becoming the strongest hurricane so far this year and the strongest storm on record in that part of the world in May. 

Mawar had top winds of 185 mph, which would certainly blow you hat off. 

This problem is far from over. Scientist say given the right conditions, hurricanes all over the world are now prone to rapid intensification and added strength due to record high ocean temperatures. 

El Nino will eventually end and ocean temperatures will cool a bit.  But those water temperatures will still be quite a bit warmer than they once were, due to the ongoing pressure from climate change. 

Any place a Category 5 storm hits will be devastated, of course.  These intense hurricanes will just be another of a mountain of logistical and recovery nightmares brought on by our consumption of fossil fuel.