If you live near the coast, few words are scarier than these: Category Five. That’s the classification for the most powerful hurricanes. The storms have maximum sustained winds of at least 157 miles per hour. And their potential damage is catastrophic. They can flatten houses, bring massive storm surges, and cause heavy rainfall well inland.

In recent years, the most powerful tropical storms have been getting even stronger. And as our planet continues to warm up, they’re expected to get stronger still. So some scientists think it’s time to add even scarier words to the tropical-storm lexicon: Category Six. To qualify for this category, a storm would have wind speeds of at least 192 miles per hour.

A recent study found that five storms would have reached that threshold in the past nine years—four typhoons in the western Pacific Ocean, and one hurricane in the eastern Pacific—Hurricane Patricia. It hit the Pacific coast of Mexico with peak sustained winds of 215 miles per hour—the strongest storm yet recorded.

The study also projected that such monster storms will become more common in the years ahead. Climate change is making the oceans warmer, providing extra “fuel” to power typhoons and hurricanes. That may not increase the number of tropical storms, but it is expected to make the strongest of them even more intense. Some would even qualify for Category Six—a scarier name for the most powerful storms.

Scientists in Australia are trying to paint the sea floor red. They’re giving a helping hand to the red handfish—one of the most endangered fish on the planet.

The fish is only three or four inches long. It’s named for the fins on its sides, which are shaped like small hands. In fact, the fish uses those fins to walk along the ocean floor—it seldom swims. The hands can be pinkish brown, but they can also be bright red, along with the mouth and other body parts.

Red handfish used to be common around Tasmania, a large island off the southeastern coast of Australia. Today, the population is down to about 100 adults. They’re found in two small patches that are no bigger than football fields.

In part, the population has dwindled because of an explosion in the number of sea urchins. Fishers have caught a lot of rock lobsters, which eat the urchins. Without the lobsters, the urchins have gobbled the kelp that forms an important part of the handfish habitat.

Scientists are trying to rebuild the handfish population. In 2021 and ’23, they hatched eggs in the lab, then released the youngsters into the wild. And in late 2023, they gathered 25 adults from the ocean and housed them in tanks. That was to protect them from a “marine heatwave” that could have killed off some of the fish. They, too, were scheduled to be returned to their ocean homes.

These efforts could help the red handfish survive—adding some splashes of color off the coast of Tasmania.

A massive hailstorm blasted northeastern Spain a couple of years ago. It lasted only 10 minutes or so. But it produced the largest hailstones ever recorded in the country—the size of softballs. It might have been kicked up a couple of notches by another type of “weather” event—a marine heatwave.

The storm roared to life on August 30th, 2022. It caused major damage to roofs, cars, and crops. It injured 67 people, and killed a toddler, who was hit in the head by one of the giant hailstones.

A recent study blamed the intensity of the storm on global climate change. Scientists simulated climate conditions under different levels of air and ocean warming.

The storm took place during a marine heatwave in the western Mediterranean Sea. The surface water temperature topped 85 degrees Fahrenheit—five degrees higher than normal. That produced more evaporation, which fed extra moisture into the air. It also heated the air, providing the energy to build storm clouds. As hailstones developed, strong updrafts pushed them back up, so they just kept getting bigger and bigger. Finally, they became heavy enough to plunge to the ground—causing chaos.

The study said the hailstorm itself could have happened without today’s higher temperatures. But it would not have been as intense or as destructive.

Major hailstorms have been getting more common across Spain and the rest of Europe. And the study says that trend should continue—powered by our warming climate.