2017 was indeed a wildly busy year for hurricanes. Within the summer and fall, the world saw some of the most hurricane devastation in years and in such rapid succession. Hurricane Harvey inundated Houston with water, while Hurricane Irma wrecked Florida and the Caribbean islands. Hurricane Maria crippled Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
The destruction and frequency of these hurricanes left many questioning whether or not climate change played a role in amplifying the power of these storms. Though it’s difficult to trace global warming from a hurricane, many critics think so. Let’s take a look at how global warming might have influenced these events.
Storm Intensity
Most scientists agree that global warming has a direct hand in raising the strength of the hurricanes, as warmer waters essentially provide the fuel for the storms themselves. The reason why hurricanes are in existence is so that the ocean water temperature can remain balanced. They essentially move heat from the ocean into the air to be distributed into space, allowing the oceans to return to a more moderate temperature.
Frequency
At the start of the year, the climate prediction centers at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) foresaw 14-19 named storms and 5-9 hurricanes. Compared to 12 named storms and 6 hurricanes between 1981 and 2010, these numbers are truly massive (2). However, correlation does not imply causation. Critics are fairly divided on how climate change would affect hurricane frequency. Nonetheless, it does seem that many scientists are leaning towards the idea that the number of high intensity hurricanes will increase, but the number of overall storms and hurricanes (including the less intense ones) might increase or decrease.
Storm Surge
Storm surge could increase as well. Even if hurricanes remain at the same strength, global warming is melting the ice caps and causing sea level rise, which will add to the water levels seen during hurricanes (1). On top of this, there could be more intense hurricanes more frequently.
Rainfall
Warmer air holds more water vapor, so global warming could bring more rainfall through hurricanes (2). The rate of rain falling from clouds increases, and a metric that has been provided is that rainfall rises 7% for every degree Celsius (1).
From all of this, it’s clear that more research is needed, but it is incredibly vital. Let’s assume a worst case scenario in that the climate change we are causing is actually building up the size and number of hurricanes. Shouldn’t we then pour our efforts into stopping such devastating occurrences from becoming a normality? If the hurricane never comes, we lose some money but get cleaner air, purer water, and healthier ecosystems.
Pretty good tradeoff, if you ask me.
- https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/was-the-extreme-2017-hurricane-season-driven-by-climate-change/
- https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/09/hurricane-irma-harvey-season-climate-change-weather/
- https://www.firefighternation.com/content/ffn/en/articles/2018/01/federal-report-details-hurricane-harvey-damage/_jcr_content/leftcolumn/article/thumbnailimage.img.jpg
- https://www.theatlantic.com/photo/2017/09/the-wreckage-left-in-irmas-path-across-the-caribbean-and-southeastern-us/539718/
- https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4lRwjbnxdm8/maxresdefault.jpg
- https://c.o0bg.com/rf/image_960w/Boston/2011-2020/2017/09/07/BostonGlobe.com/National/Images/AFP_S807O.jpg
- http://time.com/4960647/us-turned-its-back-on-puerto-rico/
- https://abcnews.go.com/US/harvey-now-tropical-storm-makes-landfall-louisiana/story?id=49507156
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