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onehandle

(51,122 posts)
Wed Jul 10, 2013, 12:55 PM Jul 2013

Hurricanes And Climate Change: Storms Likely To Get Stronger And More Frequent, Study Shows

Source: Huffington Post



Hurricanes are Mother Nature’s largest and most destructive storms. Fed by warm ocean waters and moist atmospheric conditions, about 90 such storms — also known as tropical cyclones — form worldwide each year. With the population of coastal areas growing daily and sea level on the rise, how these monster storms may change as the climate continues to warm is an increasingly urgent question facing climate scientists, insurance companies, and public officials.

A new study by Kerry Emanuel, a prominent hurricane researcher at MIT, found that contrary to previous findings, tropical cyclones are likely to become both stronger and more frequent in the years to come, especially in the western North Pacific, where storms can devastate the heavily populated coastlines of Asian nations. Emanuel's research showed the same holds true for the North Atlantic, where about 12 percent of the world's tropical cyclones spin each year.

Emanuel's study casts doubt on what had been the consensus view of most climate scientists — that in most ocean basins, tropical cyclones are likely to become less frequent as the world warms, but that the storms that do occur are likely to contain stronger winds and heavier rains. That view was expressed most recently in a 2012 report from the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Emanuel's study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, uses the latest generation of global climate models to power a series of high-resolution, regional simulations of tropical cyclones around the world.

Read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/09/hurricanes-climate-change_n_3567007.html

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Hurricanes And Climate Change: Storms Likely To Get Stronger And More Frequent, Study Shows (Original Post) onehandle Jul 2013 OP
Since the Contract on America Congress! nt valerief Jul 2013 #1
Wait, what?? But I've been told right here on DU that weather has nothing to do with climate change. kestrel91316 Jul 2013 #2
me too Duppers Jul 2013 #7
Remember: All science must be first interpreted by Senator Inhofe Ezlivin Jul 2013 #3
This guy has a great Inhofe take on things.. yesphan Jul 2013 #5
Yup, and not just hurricanes Hydra Jul 2013 #4
On the news dusty trails Jul 2013 #6

Ezlivin

(8,153 posts)
3. Remember: All science must be first interpreted by Senator Inhofe
Wed Jul 10, 2013, 01:50 PM
Jul 2013

He is the Republican's "Jedi Master" when it comes to science.

Watch him in awe.

Hydra

(14,459 posts)
4. Yup, and not just hurricanes
Wed Jul 10, 2013, 01:57 PM
Jul 2013

Drought, tornadoes, fires, thunderstorms...everything is getting more extreme.

The worst part is...I think this is just the beginning

dusty trails

(174 posts)
6. On the news
Wed Jul 10, 2013, 05:32 PM
Jul 2013

I've heard that an important weather satellite needed to monitor these hurricanes is malfunctioning and that 12 of them need to be replaced with new weather satellites but the funding has not been approved.

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