Thursday, November 15, 2018

How humans are transforming the hurricanes of the future

<em>Hurricane Harvey from the International Space Station, August 28th, 2017.</em>

Climate change is already making devastating hurricanes wetter — and similar storms are likely to unleash more rain and faster winds by the end of the century, new research says.

When Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria struck the US in rapid succession in the fall of 2017, the storms and their aftermaths killed thousands of people and caused an estimated $265 billion in damage. Harvey became the second costliest storm after Hurricane Katrina, which devastated New Orleans in 2005. Now, new research published today in the journal Nature suggests that climate change made Irma, Maria, and Katrina drop more rain than they would have in a pre-industrial world. The study also predicts that in a warmer future, these storms would be even wetter...

Continue reading…

Disqus Comments