Researchers debate warming, hurricanes - AP

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

Researchers debate warming, hurricanes

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID, AP Science Writer
1 hour, 13 minutes ago

WASHINGTON - The debate over whether global warming affects
hurricanes may be running into some unexpected turbulence.
Many researchers believe warming is causing the storms to get
stronger, while others aren't so sure. Now, a new study raises
the possibility that global warming might even make it harder
for hurricanes to form.

The findings, by Gabriel A. Vecchi of the National Oceanic and
Atmospheric Administration and Brian J. Soden of the University
of Miami, are reported in Wednesday's issue of Geophysical
Research Letters.

Vecchi and Soden used 18 complex computer climate models to
anticipate the effects of warming in the years 2001-2020 and
2018-2100.

Included in the results were an increase in vertical wind shear
over the tropical Atlantic and eastern Pacific oceans.

-snip-

"We don't know whether the change in shear will cancel out the
increased potential from warming oceans, but the shear increase
would tend to make the Atlantic and East Pacific less favorable
to hurricanes," said Vecchi, of NOAA's Geophysical Fluid
Dynamics Laboratory in Princeton, N.J.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070417/ap_on_sc/hurricanes_warming

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Related: Global warming may spur wind shear, sap hurricanes - Reuters

[smirkymonkey]

1. Great. Now we'll have the Republican's saying that Global

Warming is a GOOD thing.