Climate Change Update: Warming Feeds Stronger Storms

Human-caused climate change is already producing greater damage from more powerful and frequent hurricanes. Researchers have the evidence.

A new study reported in the journal Science predicted that the Atlantic coast will see a drastic increase in the average number of major hurricanes each year, from three per year since 2000 to as many as five to eight each year by 2100. The change is attributed to warmer waters in the Atlantic Ocean. Warmer water evaporates more moisture into the air, which powers greater and more frequent storms. The recent average of three per year is already a major jump from the two per year average experienced prior to 2000.

This year’s Hurricane Florence was the second “wettest” storm in United States history (measured by amount of rainfall in a four-day period). The wettest storm was Hurricane Harvey, which hit Houston last year, and the third wettest struck northern Louisiana in 2016. That means the three heaviest rainfall storms in the 70-year history of U.S. Atlantic records occurred in the past three years.

Climate scientists estimate that Florence dropped 50% more rain than a similar storm would have produced in the absence of already observed temperature changes.

Up next, Hurricane Relief Approved >>

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