AccuWeather Vice President of Forecast Operations Dan DePodwin and AccuWeather Climate Expert Brett Anderson discuss the top headlines related to climate change in the September 20 edition of Climate In The News.
00:00Today we're focusing on hurricanes and how these powerful storms are being affected by climate change.
00:06The article, Brett, from BBC covers a wide range of ongoing observations and impacts we're seeing climate change have on hurricanes or tropical storms or typhoons as they're known in other basins.
00:16Yes, exactly. And with climate change, many studies have shown that the number of hurricanes, Dan, are actually not likely to change that much, pretty much flat.
00:26However, with the intensity of hurricanes, we expect more storms to reach Category 4, Category 5 strike, perhaps a 13 percent increase in those storms with two degrees Celsius of warming, which is very likely to occur.
00:40Higher rainfall rates with these more extreme storms, also higher wind speeds.
00:44Obviously, Category 4 or 5 storms, as they impact land, a significant concern if more intense storms make landfall, probably warrants a brief discussion about what ingredients form a hurricane and how climate change has impacted those ingredients, warm water being one of the more obvious pieces needed for a hurricane to form.
01:03Yeah, we usually have tropical waves. Tropical waves, basically big clusters of thunderstorms. In order to get thunderstorms, we need an unstable atmosphere, enough moisture as well.
01:12But with climate warming, what we're seeing is the atmosphere is a little bit too warm, well above the ground, and that's creating a more stable environment and less thunderstorms.
01:21So the thunderstorms are going to get a hurricane.
01:23And we've seen that here in 2025 hurricane season, where there's been a long period of no named storms, which is a little bit unusual during the peak of the hurricane season.
01:32So even though we may not see an increase in number of storms, the ones that do occur can be especially intense from a wind perspective.
01:41There's some studies that show that the average wind speeds may go up close to 20 miles per hour or have even done that in the last couple of years.
01:47And the rain seems like a really big impact from hurricanes, right, Brett?
01:51Yes, climate change made Hurricane Harvey that much more extreme, perhaps three times more than what occurred many, many decades ago.
02:00And again, a lot of that was due to the very slow-moving of Hurricane Harvey and also the increase in moisture.
02:07For every degree Celsius of warming, the atmosphere can hold about 7% more moisture.
02:12Yeah, that slow-moving forward speed is something that is seen more often in a warming world, it seems like,
02:17as well as obviously the potential for extreme rainfall that causes extreme flooding.
02:22The other significant impact is sea level rise.
02:25Obviously, that rise is ongoing without any hurricanes.
02:27But when hurricanes and other storms come, that sort of really adds one more layer to the impact.
02:33Yeah, we're seeing a lot of flooding just at high tides now.
02:36Just imagine with a big hurricane moving inland.
02:38Of course, with Sandy, Sandy would not have been nearly as severe back in, say, 1950 compared to when it did occur due to sea level rise.
02:48Now, when sea level rise is a steady increase, it's going to continue to increase.
02:53And so storms even weaker than Sandy could produce just as much damage, if not more, in the next couple of decades.
02:59Yeah, and I think the other interesting piece that's very concerning is the rapid intensification could occur more often
03:04when the storm goes from a tropical storm to a major hurricane very quickly.
03:07Yeah, we don't want to see that, especially when it's close to landfall.
03:11People can be prepared for a Category 2, and then all of a sudden, five hours later, it's gotten to a Category 4 or 5.
03:18Yeah, Hurricane Michael in 2018 being one of the significant examples recently of a rapid intensifying storm.
03:23Thanks, Brett.
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climate change is mainly a scam. its rich people trying to control us, period. quit listening to most experts. its an agenda to take away freedom. they couldnt care less about the climate. they build their houses on a shoreline they say will be under water if we dont give them money. the earth's climate is going to do what the climate has always done, whatever it wants. how much you get paid to spread lies. same ol' noise
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