Page 8 - I-Plants Magazine July 2021 TH_EB_TH_FINALJuly 30F5 update Aug 6

In 2020, there was no El Niño to suppress hurri- These intensification events have gotten more frequent
cane activity, Caldas said. That, combined with over the last 40 years. One study found that the chance
warmer water in the Atlantic and an enhanced a hurricane will undergo rapid intensification went from
monsoon season in western Africa, increased the 1 in 100 in the early 1980s to 1 in 20 by mid-2005.
likelihood of an active hurricane season.
“Hurricanes are becoming stronger, wetter, slower, and
Conditions are similar this year, she said, though more destructive, and all these trends have been linked
La Niña might emerge later in the season. to anthropogenic global warming in one way or another,”
Caldas wrote in a blog post.
Hurricanes are getting stronger, wetter, and
slower Over the past 70 years or so, the speed at which hurri-
canes and tropical storms move has also dropped about
Earth’s warming increases the chance that a 10%, according to a 2018 study. That’s a problem, since
hurricane will be more devastating. Rising ocean it means any given storm has more time to pummel an
temperatures in particular play a major role, area with wind and rain.
since the temperature of the water below a storm
influences its wind speed. A 1-degree-Fahrenheit To make matters worse, a warmer atmosphere can hold
rise in ocean temperature can increase a storm’s more moisture, so a 10% slowdown in a storm’s pace
wind speed by up to 20 miles per hour, according could double the amount of rainfall and flooding that an
to Yale Climate Connections. area experiences. The peak rain rates of storms have in-
creased by 30% over the past 60 years. That translates
That also enables storms to intensify and develop to up to 4 inches of rain in an hour.
into powerful hurricanes in less time. There’s a
term for this: Rapid intensification refers to an in- Click on picture video link below to learn more on how sci-
crease of at least 35 mph in a storm’s wind speeds entists say climate change can make hurricanes stronger,
within 24 hours.

Last year, this happened with Hurricane Laura —
its winds jumped from 75 to 140 miles per hour
on August 26, catapulting the hurricane from
Category 1 to Category 4.

8 Making The New Normal Better!