From year to year, it’s hard to predict how bad a file will get Hurricane season it will be. But scientists say Climate change It makes tornadoes worse, especially when it comes to how destructive they can be when they hit the ground.
Christine Corpocero is an assistant professor of atmospheric and environmental sciences at the University at Albany. It studies the structure and intensity of tropical cyclone change.
“We can certainly see changes in the impacts of hurricanes, and we think these are only going to get worse,” Corpocero said.
When Corpocero talks about impacts, she means the path of destruction a hurricane leaves when it strikes a community, such as homes, businesses, and people. Corbusero said sea level rise It is one of the most obvious ways that climate change is affecting the devastation caused by hurricanes.
“When hurricanes come ashore, they bring water with them,” Corpocero said. “Think about the flooding in Katrina, and that was, you know, over 15 years ago now.”
“More water will come ashore,” Corposero continued. “And we know that this kind of bringing water ashore is really the number one cause of death for people in hurricanes.”
It’s not just sea level rise to worry about. A recent study In the journal Science Advances, published in April, he shows how climate change may prompt more hurricanes to land in parts of the United States.
“I liked this study because they weren’t trying to say that there will be more storms or that they will be more intense, but storms that form have a higher probability of making landfall, affecting people,” Corbusero said.
Specifically, the study said, landfall could occur more in the southeastern United States, especially Florida, and possibly less in the Northeast.
This was because storms moved through the atmosphere in different ways in a Climate warmingCorbusero said. “That’s what this study predicts is that, more than 40 years from now, our climate change will affect these storms and whether or not they hit the United States.”
Corpozero said scientists aren’t sure about other links between hurricanes and climate change, such as whether there are more to come.
“In terms of being able to attribute climate change and hurricane intensity or increase in number, it’s really hard to be able to attribute things to certain causes,” she said.
One reason, Corbusero said, is that they base their predictions for the future by looking at patterns from the past, and they don’t have enough historical data to do that yet.
“And I know that’s not a really satisfactory answer,” she said. “It’s not a satisfactory answer for me as a scientist, but I think we need to be honest about what we know most and what we’re most certain about and then what we’re least certain about.”
There is a broader impact of hurricanes than it does on those who live along the coast. Hurricanes still cause the most destruction of all climate disasters recorded in US history, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
When it comes to US hurricane losses, the government estimates that, in the past 40 years, they have caused damages in excess of $1.1 trillion and are responsible for nearly 6,700 deaths.
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