There is just over a week left until the official end of the Atlantic hurricane season (November 30) and no new storms/depressions are expected to appear in this basin.
That's good news, as a new study from the nonprofit climate research group Climate Central shows hurricanes are getting stronger.
The question being asked today is: Do we control the weather? In a way, yes. Recent research now shows that hurricanes are getting stronger every year.
“With climate change, the basic concept is that we are adding energy to storms,” said hurricane forecaster Rick Spinrad of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
According to data from Fox News, human-caused climate change has made hurricanes more intense.
“Winds will continue to be an issue, but flooding and extreme rainfall will have an even greater impact than we have seen before,” Spinrad explains.
Emissions continue to cause ocean temperatures to spike, pushing hurricanes to new heights. This year, Hurricanes Beryl and Milton reached Category 5 hurricane strength, with Hurricane Milton being one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record.
Although they were downgraded before landfall, the study found that there would have been no Category 5 storms in 2024 without human-caused climate change.
"We're going to see changes in the speed of these storms. We're going to see changes in Milton, and I think we're going to see a lot of different manifestations of the additional energy associated with those storms," Spinrad added.
Parts of Florida's Big Bend are still cleaning up after two superstorms, Helene and Milton, made landfall, and new research from Climate Central suggests this could become more common in the years ahead.
Another new study from NOAA also predicts that the next Atlantic hurricane seasons will be increasingly active, both in terms of the number and intensity of storms.
Research suggests that the trend is linked to changes in wind patterns and ocean temperatures.
For a tropical cyclone to form, certain atmospheric and oceanic conditions must be met: preexisting weather disturbances, warm ocean waters (above 26 degrees Celsius), thunderstorm activity, and low vertical wind shear, that is, the difference in wind speed between the top and bottom of the storm. Higher wind shear has the effect of knocking down and preventing the storm from developing.
Changes in vertical wind shear and atmospheric stability (the ability to form strong thunderstorms), due to differences in ocean temperatures between the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, cause changes in variability.
These changes are expected to become more pronounced in the future, adding to the variability of Atlantic hurricane seasons.
