Another climate change. Hurricanes in the Atlantic are now more than twice as likely to rapidly intensify. Warming sea surfaces are making small hurricanes increasingly powerful and potentially catastrophic, warns a study published this week in the journal Scientific reports.
A case in point was recorded in August: in less than 24 hours, Hurricane Lee went from Category 1, with wind speeds of 129 kilometers per hour, to Category 5, with winds of 249 kilometers per hour. The incident violated the standard for what meteorologists call rapid intensification: when hurricane-force winds become stronger. 56 kilometers per hour in one day. And this happens more often.
A new study analyzed 830 tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean since 1971. 8.1% of the timeOver the past 20 years, storms have gone from a Category 1 to a major hurricane—Category 3 or higher—in 24 hours. According to research, this Only 3.2% of cases reported between 1971 and 1990 occurred.
Such a rapid activation does not allow the population and authorities to respond in a timely manner. “We’re talking about something that’s hard to predict and that certainly could lead to a more destructive storm,” explained Andra Garner, a climate scientist at Rowan University in New Jersey and an author of the study. AP.
“90% of the excess warming caused by human activity on the planet ended up in our oceans,” Garner explained. The sea surface temperature in August this year averaged 20.98°C. A new record, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.
Climate change has caused catastrophic hurricanes
Scientists are already warning that 2023 could be the hottest year on record. Global temperatures between January and September 2023 are 0.52°C higher than the corresponding 1991–2020 average. And this is already 0.05 °C warmer than the average for nine months of 2016.currently the hottest calendar year.
Garner found that the rapid intensification of hurricanes occurs primarily along the Atlantic coast of the U.S. East Coast, rather than in the Gulf of Mexico. From 2012 to 2022, There have been more than 160 weather and climate disasters in the United States. A total of 24 of these events were tropical cyclones, including the six costliest natural disasters recorded in the country during this period, the study highlights. And many of the most destructive hurricanes stand out precisely because of the speed at which they intensified.
Another study found that more than 64% of the damage caused by climate change worldwide is due to hurricanes. The researchers looked at 185 natural disasters that occurred between 2000 and 2019 that were most likely linked to the climate crisis. Analysis published in a scientific journal Natural communicationsreports that damages average $140 billion per year.
“If we don’t work to reduce our (carbon) emissions, then we can probably expect this trend to continue into the future” and even get worse, Garner said.
Source: Hiper Textual
