Usercane

A usercane is a type of hypothetical hurricane issued to all users of Hypothetical Hurricanes Wiki that meet certain requirements. Usercanes are tracked like real hurricanes, but are much longer lived than hurricanes. Strong usercanes often last several months, sometimes even years. Meanwhile, other weak usercanes dissipate after a day or two. They were first classified by the BNWC in December 2015, and advisories began to be issued for them the next month The BNWC established the National Usercane Center (NUC)in early 2016, which issues advisories on Usercanes. Other weather centers, such as the HOWC, HTMC, SMWC, CDMC, FMC, KMC and ICON also (occasionally) track usercanes. Of those, the KMC, HTMC, SMWC, CDMC, and ICON have dedicated usercane tracking branches. An average usercane season according to the NUC (2010-2015) features 12 named storms, 6.5 hurricanes and 5.2 major hurricanes.

Defining usercanes and naming criteria
Usercanes were first recognized by the BNWC in November 2015, but a system of classification was not made at the time. Due to HHW having five different primary user rights ranks, the "usercane scale" was created.

Fully Tropical Usercanes
The BNWC will issue advisories on a usercane if the following requirements are met for the user: The BNWC first used this system with Tropical Storm Destiny of 2016, and the procedure was later used throughout the season. However, the HurricaneOdile Weather Center (HOWC) recognizes all users with at least 5 edits as usercanes.
 * The user has at least 5 edits, AND
 * The user has never been on HHW before.

Subtropical Usercanes
A usercane is considered to be "subtropical" if one of the five conditions are met: If the user no longer meets one of the five requirements, their usercane becomes fully tropical. Subtropical usercanes very rarely grow into category 5 intensity whilst subtropical, a very rare case of this was Hurricane BeoBlade in September 2015 during the burst of usercane activity that led to the formation of many intense usercanes.
 * The user meets the requirement for classification as a usercane, but does not intend to join HHW full-time. A major case of this was Hurricane Floyd in 2015, which later grew into a powerful fully tropical category 5 storm.
 * The user is blacklisted from user rights.
 * The user is semi-retired
 * The user has planned to go inactive for a long period of time.
 * The user is slowly coming out of a retired state.

Extratropical Usercanes
When a user retires from HHW, their usercane becomes extratropical. A notable case of this was Hurricane Steve in May 2015, which turned extratropical (which later regained subtropical characteristics one year later).

Remnant Lows
When a user disappears from HHW randomly, or they have stopped editing for a period of time without officially retiring or semi-retiring, they degenerate into a remnant low. A notable case of this was Hurricane Jack in 2016, which degenerated into a remnant low in February before reforming March.

Invests
Users are designated as "invests" if they meet one of the following two requirements:
 * 1 to 5 edits OR
 * 0 edits AND a chat appearance.

Landfalls
When a user gets banned, they are said to have made landfall. In recent years there has been a significant uptick in landfalling usercanes; notable landfalling usercanes include Puffle, Nkechinyer, and Douglas, all of which made landfall at category 5 intensity. The most recent usercanes that made landfall were Hurricane Bittersweet, which made landfall at Newfoundland and Tropical Storm Yolo, which made landfall at South America.

Usercane ACE
The Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) of a usercane is calculated by summing the squares of a usercane's wind speed in knots at one-week intervals, divided by 10000. To remain consistent, wind speeds are measured on Fridays at 00:00 UTC. Subtropical cyclones are included, but not systems with winds under 34 kt (39 mph). Usercane Hype has the most ACE of all usercanes.

Category 5 Usercanes
The following usercanes attained Category 5 intensity for at least one advisory. So far, as of April 21, 2016, there have been 16 known category 5 usercanes. They are listed as follows:
 * Sjmaven (2010) - 180 mph, 895 mbar
 * Dylan (2010) - 165 mph, 928 mbar
 * Hype (2013) - 205 mph, 866 mbar
 * Ryne (2013) - 175 mph, 902 mbar
 * Douglas (2014) - 160 mph, 966 mbar
 * Cardozo (2014) - 160 mph, 964 mbar
 * Bumblebee (2014) - 165 mph, 933 mbar
 * Layten (2014) - 165 mph, 916 mbar
 * Dwight (2014) - 160 mph, 929 mbar
 * EF5 (2015) - 160 mph, 925 mbar
 * Puffle (2015) - 175 mph, 911 mbar
 * Icecraft (2015) - 160 mph, 964 mbar*
 * Nkechinyer (2015) - 165 mph, 904 mbar
 * Austin (2015) - 160 mph, 936 mbar
 * BeoBlade (2015) - 160 mph, 970 mbar**
 * Bob (2015) - 180 mph, 902 mbar
 * Floyd (2015) - 165 mph, 912 mbar
 * Anthony (2015) - 180 mph, 902 mbar

For a complete list of category 5 and category 4 usercanes, see here:
 * IceCraft was a very small usercane that attained category 5 intensity while subtropical. (It did have a peak as C3 as a fully tropical cyclone)
 * BeoBlade was very small, and actually had subtropical characteristics.

(Please note these estimates are by the ICON Usercane Center and may or may not be official)


 * List of Category 5 Atlantic usercanes
 * List of Category 4 Atlantic usercanes

Usercane Seasons
For a complete list of usercane seasons, go here.

Usercane Records
For a condensed list of usercane records, go here.

Size

 * Less than 20 miles - Midget
 * 20-100 miles - Very Small
 * 101-200 miles - Small
 * 201-350 miles - Medium
 * 351-500 miles - Large
 * 501-800 miles - Very Large
 * 801+ miles - Giant