Atlantic Hurricanes Get Stronger, Quicker
Storms forming over the Atlantic ocean are now strengthening much more quickly thanks to climate change, a new study has found, and are now twice as likely to go from a weak hurricane to a major one in just 24 hours. The study, published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports, looks at intensification rates for Atlantic tropical cyclones over five decades, finding that the mean average rate of intensification has risen more than 28% for storms between 2001 and 2020 versus storms between 1971 and 1990. While experts caution that climate change may not be the sole factor driving stronger storms, it is a major contributor to the kinds of dangerous and destructive storms we’re now seeing. “If we don’t work to lower our (carbon) emissions, then that’s a trend that we likely could expect to see continue to happen in the future,” lead author Andra Garner told the AP.
(AP, New York Times $, Washington Post $, Reuters, ABC, Smithsonian, Popular Science)
(Climate Signals: Hurricanes)
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