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.
03:24For other information about climate and stories, you can find that at AccuWeather.com slash climate.
03:28You can find that at AccuWeather.com slash climate.
03:29You can find that at AccuWeather.com slash climate.
03:30You can find that at AccuWeather.com slash climate.
03:31You can find that at AccuWeather.com slash climate.
03:32You can find that at AccuWeather.com slash climate.
03:33You can find that at AccuWeather.com slash climate.
03:34You can find that at AccuWeather.com slash climate.
03:35You can find that at AccuWeather.com slash climate.
03:36You can find that at AccuWeather.com slash climate.
03:37You can find that at AccuWeather.com slash climate.
03:38You can find that at AccuWeather.com slash climate.
03:39You can find that at AccuWeather.com slash climate.
03:40You can find that at AccuWeather.com slash climate.
Comments
1