Videos falsely claim Category 6 hurricane is headed for Florida, Carolinas in September

Government agencies like FEMA are urging preparedness as we near the peak of the Atlantic hurricane season in September.

Two viral TikTok videos claim a Category 6 hurricane is headed for Florida and the Carolinas in early September. The claim appears to have originated from a self-described “time traveler” who has posted other prediction videos on TikTok. 

While some people in the videos’ comments were skeptical about the claims, online search data show others are wondering whether a Category 6 hurricane is predicted to hit Florida and the Carolinas. 

THE QUESTION

Is a Category 6 hurricane predicted to hit Florida and the Carolinas in early September?

THE SOURCES

• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
• The National Hurricane Center, a division within NOAA
• Bobby Deskins, chief meteorologist at VERIFY’s Tampa Bay partner station WTSP
• Daniel Swain, Ph.D., climate scientist at UCLA

THE ANSWER

No, a Category 6 hurricane is not predicted to hit Florida and the Carolinas in early September.

WHAT WE FOUND

The viral videos’ claims about a hurricane headed for Florida and the Carolinas in early September are false. 

Category 6 hurricanes do not exist and weather models cannot predict storms that far in advance.

The five-category Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale estimates potential property damage from the storm. The scale is a 1 to 5 rating based on a hurricane’s maximum sustained wind speed, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHS).

Any hurricanes rated as a Category 3 or higher are known as “major hurricanes,” which can cause devastating to catastrophic damage and significant loss of life due to the strength of their winds, NHS says. 

The highest rating on the scale is a Category 5 hurricane, which produces wind speeds of 157 mph or higher. A Category 6 rating does not exist.

Meteorologists also would not currently be tracking a hurricane that is supposed to hit on Sept. 4 or Sept. 6, both of which are dates that the viral TikTok videos reference. 

Weather forecast models are at their most accurate within a five-to-seven-day timeframe, according to Bobby Deskins, chief meteorologist at VERIFY partner station WTSP. 

“Anything beyond that and you just don’t trust the models as much,” Deskins said. “So to say that something’s going to happen in three [or] four weeks – especially with the specifics they said in that video – it’s just not something that we do.”

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) issued its 2023 hurricane forecast in late May. 

That forecast predicts 12 to 17 named storms with winds of 39 mph or higher. Five to nine of those storms could become hurricanes, including one to four major hurricanes. NOAA said it has a “70% confidence in these ranges.”

The hurricane forecast does not list specific areas where storms will develop or make landfall. 

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at UCLA, told VERIFY there is “no specific storm that is expected to hit Florida within the foreseeable future, although of course the possibility exists later this season with storms that have yet to form.”