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.

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.
 * 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 four conditions are met: If the user no longer meets one of the four 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 4 storm (at one point even attaining category 5 intensity)
 * The user is blacklisted from user rights.
 * The user is semi-retired
 * 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 (although the usercane would later have a chance at turning tropical again).

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.