The question of “Does global warming cause hurricanes?” gained renewed interest after the infamous Hurricane Irma ravaged the U.S. In the aftermath, many climate scientists and experts debated whether the warming of the planet was to blame for the recent storm. Others said that there was no link between the climate change and the intensity of the storm. But the results were similar regardless of the source. Read on to learn more about the evidence behind this controversy and what you can do about it.
As the oceans warm and the weather becomes more extreme, hurricanes become stronger. According to the National Hurricane Center, the most destructive hurricanes in the U.S. are three times more common than they were a century ago. In the Atlantic Ocean, the proportion of major hurricanes has almost doubled since the 1980s. The warmer climate has also increased the speed of hurricane intensification. In recent years, the intensity of Hurricanes Dorian and Laura accelerated dramatically, increasing the intensity of hurricanes.
However, some researchers say that global warming increases the probability of hurricanes, and has already been linked to an increased risk of catastrophic weather. Although scientists disagree on the specific relationship between hurricanes and global warming, the property-casualty industry has weighed in on the issue. In particular, one of the largest catastrophe modeling firms believes that global warming will increase the frequency and intensity of hurricanes. This conclusion is based on recent scientific studies.
Moreover, the extent of hurricanes in the United States is changing, and their impact is being felt on the region. Some researchers say that the increased temperature in the tropics is responsible for this shift, and this shift may endanger more people. To understand these effects, further research is needed. In the meantime, it is important to protect the environment and avoid natural disasters. There are few scientific arguments in favor of global warming, but it is an important topic to understand.
While climate scientists are divided on this question, the science of hurricane prediction has become increasingly politicized. The science of hurricanes used to be a specialized branch of meteorology. But today, it is the focus of highly charged discussions on the causes of disasters and global warming. The leading climate scientists disagree on how to explain the correlation between hurricanes and ocean temperatures. Despite the controversy, this debate has not changed its significance, with the exception of a few climate models predicting an increase in rainfall due to global warming.
The Bush administration has a poor history when it comes to climate change and hurricanes. They have a record of misrepresenting climate data, and limiting the role of scientists in deciding the fate of the planet. They even control what government scientists can say to the media. During the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, the administration barred one of its own employees from speaking about climate change. And the Bush administration continues to stifle the science of climate and hurricanes.
A few years ago, Professor Kerry Emanuel of M.I.T. suggested that the intensity of hurricanes increased as a result of global warming. Later, the GFDL/NOAA team began to simulate hurricanes in late 1990s and found that they were strongly correlated with the intensification of hurricanes. The scientists’ work included coarse-resolution simulations of tropical storms and the high-resolution GFDL model to predict future storms. In a report published in Science, they concluded that the two are linked.
Another study from the NOAA used a computer model to study the relationship between climate and hurricane intensity. The models were based on the “cool SST wake” that hurricanes generate over a simulated ocean. The model found that the warm waters in the ocean exacerbated the intensity of hurricanes, thereby making them more dangerous to humans. This finding is consistent with the findings of the researchers. The findings are ambiguous, but the authors believe that global warming and hurricanes are closely related.
Scientists are still refining the science behind the relationship between climate change and hurricanes. The results of this research are a mixed bag. There is no consensus regarding the causal relationship between climate change and individual hurricanes, but scientists have found some interesting trends in both types of weather. While there are some trends and uncertainties, the conclusion is still that global warming contributes to the increased frequency and intensity of hurricanes. They do not know what is causing the storms in the first place.