Hurricane Milton has rapidly intensified into a powerful Category 5 storm and is expected to make landfall on Florida's Gulf Coast by Wednesday. As of Monday morning, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported that the storm was located 125 miles west of Progreso, Mexico, and roughly 735 miles southwest of Tampa, Florida. With maximum sustained winds of 160 mph, Milton is projected to unleash devastating effects, including a storm surge of 8 to 12 feet in Tampa Bay and rainfall of 5 to 10 inches across mainland Florida and the Florida Keys.
As the storm gained strength in the Gulf of Mexico, speculation spread online about whether Milton could become a Category 6 hurricane—a classification that doesn't officially exist.
"This hurricane Milton is nuts. Yesterday the models had it as a Cat 3. Today they said it might be cat 4 by 6 PM. It’s now a cat 5. This might be the one to cross the 192mph upper limit of cat 5 and become a cat 6. It’s got a lot of warm water to go," one person wrote on X.
Related News | 
Tropical Storm Milton Path: When Will It Hit Florida?
What Category Is Hurricane Milton? Path, Evacuation Orders, Landfall Details
Another wrote, "Hurricane Milton is 3 days away from Florida and is now a category 5. Will we be seeing a Cat 6?"
What if it becomes the most powerful storm ever? Surpassing CAT 5… Is there a CAT 6?
— MC Revenant (@mcrevenant) October 7, 2024
A third person wrote, "Imagine a possible Cat 6 Hurricane Milton coming towards your state…that’s insane. Mother Nature is really unpredictable and Climate change is real."
They are saying it could reach CAT 6 by landfall….
— Cate (@McCate02) October 7, 2024
Despite these concerns, the NHC confirms there is no official Category 6. The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, developed in 1971 by civil engineer Herbert Saffir and meteorologist Robert Simpson, currently ranks hurricanes from Category 1 to 5. The ranking is based on sustained wind speeds and the potential for destruction.
Related News | 
Hurricane Milton Tracker: Could It Hit North Carolina?
Tropical Storm Milton Sparks State Of Emergency In Florida Counties: Here Is A List
However, in recent years, experts have raised the possibility of expanding the scale to reflect increasingly powerful storms fueled by climate change.
Climatologist Michael Mann told The Guardian in 2018, "Scientifically, [six] would be a better description of the strength of 200mph (320km/h) storms, and it would also better communicate the well-established finding now that climate change is making the strongest storms even stronger."
In 2019, former NOAA Hurricane Hunter and Weather Underground co-founder Jeff Masters suggested that Hurricane Dorian, with its exceptional intensity, warranted a Category 6 rating.
Related News | 
Hurricane Milton: List Of Florida Schools And Universities Closed On October 7
Storm Milton Tracker: State of Emergency In Disney World Area, Football Games Affected
"It makes sense from a climate change communication point of view to expand the Saffir-Simpson scale to include a category 6 — and category 7 — to call attention to this new breed of ultra-intense catastrophic hurricanes that will likely grow increasingly common in the coming decades," Masters said at the time.
For now, however, there is no official plan to introduce a Category 6 classification.