Our New Name: Category 6™

By: Jeff Masters and Bob Henson , 10:55PM,GMT on October 13,2016

Jeff Masters’ WunderBlog is no more. After much deliberation among ourselves and WU colleagues, as well as some jumping through logistical hoops, we are delighted to announce that we are now the Category 6 blog! From its beginning in 2005, our blog’s top mission has been covering tropical weather. We concluded that the Category 6 name (which was suggested by Jeff) harks back to those tropical roots. More broadly, the name alludes to our deep fascination with all types of weather and climate extremes, including the many important facets of our changing climate. The Category 6 blog will provide all the insight and expert analysis needed to put the extreme events of our evolving 21st-century climate into context.


We greatly enjoyed and appreciated all of the suggestions you provided during our name-the-blog invitation earlier this year. We received more than 100 suggestions, including serious nominations and a few on-the-edge possibilities. Some of our favorite names included:

Met Vets (WU member Xyrus2000)
EverWunder (WU staff member Todd Gladfelter)
Under the Rainbow with Jeff and Bob (WU member patrap)
Bob and Jeff’s Wxcellent Adventure (WU member oldnewmex)
The Storm Cellar (WU member Neapolitan)
WunderThunder (WU staff member Saeed Ezzati)
Under the Weather (WU member DCSwithunderscores and reader Jennifer Francis)
Wonders Never Cease (WU member KDDFlorida)

To find us under our new name, just look for Category 6 under “News and Blogs” in WU’s web-based pulldown menu and under “Blogs” in our app-based navigation.

Although we have a new name, we’re planning to keep the content in Category 6 mostly as you know it. You can expect the same regular, in-depth coverage of weather and climate topics, including breaking news, profiles of past weather events, and deep dives into ongoing research. Both of us will be on deck full time (and more as needed) during tropical season, with Jeff posting on a part-time basis at other times of the year. Jeff says:

“The change in blog name was past due, since Bob Henson has been doing more than half of all the posts in my blog over the past year. We also want to start bringing in more guest posts, so it made sense to have this shared blog not be named after me--thus the new “Category 6” WunderBlog is here. Mind you, with this blog name, we are not advocating that the National Hurricane Center add a new “Category 6” to the Saffir-Simpson scale. From a disaster preparedness point of view, Category 5 storms are already catastrophic--so there is little to be gained telling people there is a Category 6 storm headed their way!”

We'll be back on Friday morning with a wrap-up on Hurricane Nicole--which socked Bermuda with a direct hit at Category 3 strength on Thursday morning--and a look ahead to the potentially historic windstorm in the Pacific Northwest this weekend, which will be nourished by the remnants of Typhoon Songda. See our post from Thursday morning for more on Nicole.

This blog literally wouldn’t be the same without your many thousands of insightful comments, observations, and images. Our community of reader-contributors is what truly makes our blog stand out. Thanks as always for your loyalty and support!

Jeff Masters and Bob Henson


Figure 1. Typhoon Maysak as seen from the International Space Station at 2118Z on March 31, 2015. Image credit: NASA/Wikimedia Commons.