A hypercane is a hypothetical class of extreme tropical cyclone

Hypercanes are thought to have played a role in the biggest mass extinction ever, the end-Permian.[1] Back then all the continents had converged into the massive Pangea supercontinent, which was surrounded by an equally massive global ocean. Bear in mind that today's most intense tropical cyclones are the ones in the Pacific, the world's largest ocean. Back during the Permian, the global super ocean would've been an even richer feeding ground for cyclones.

From the article cited below, "there might have turbocharged 'hypercanes' of almost unbelievable intensity assaulting the supercontinent Pangaea—the result of runaway global warming." Also bear in mind that the supercontinent Pangea was assumed to be habitable almost exclusively along its coasts, with an immense desert covering most of its non-coastal land. So if life was mostly concentrated along the coasts and the coasts are constantly getting slammed by hypercanes... yeah, not good.

Certainly lots of things contributed to the Permian extinction. Some have referred to it as the "Murder on the Orient Express" extinction: everything caused it. Pangea, an asteroid impact or two, volcanoes, methane releases from the ocean floor, maybe even a gamma ray burst hit the Earth too. The sheer scale of death seems to imply multiple causes. But regardless of what the primary causes were, the hypercanes part of it always fascinated me.

[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/07/a-road-t...

... As the area of sub-700mb atmospheric pressure slid over the Tetons and down into the Yellowstone Caldera, an enormous weight was lifted. Like a curious bear pushing aside the stone on the lid of a bottomless box swarming with a quadrillion angry bees, a trillion tons of ash exploded into the stratosphere. Within hours, half of humanity lay sprawled under a smothering blanket of doom ...

If any of the events required for this incredibly speculative thing to happen occurred we'd probably have bigger things to worry about.

I hypothesize that hypertornados would go along with it, and since we're speculating about things that could be triggered by large asteroid impacts, I imagine there will be hyperquakes, too. We could call the long, cold period after hyperwinter.

This link is stupid.

That would be especially nasty. Even if you survive the winds and don't drown in the storm surge, there would be a threat that ordinary hurricanes do not pose: burns.

The ocean temperature necessary to support a hypercane is high enough to cause third degree burns in around 10 minutes and second degree burns in around 20 minutes.

Curious if a thermonuclear explosion in the sea could kick off something like this. Y'know, because nukes aren't scary enough as they are. How long would the sea temperature need to be at 50C for, and what volume of water? And presumably if you're dropping an h bomb in the sea there's going to be a tsunami as well.

Hypercanes would be pretty intense; wind speeds of 500 mph would destroy most buildings, and almost all skyscrapers (which are not built to withstand such lateral loads).