How does climate change impact hurricanes like Helene?
Climate change is making hurricanes like Hurricane Helene more intense, scientific research shows. Helene has unleashed high winds, heavy rain and a dangerous storm surge in the Southeast after making landfall in Florida as a Category 4 hurricane Thursday night. It follows roughly two and a half months after Hurricane Beryl — which peaked as a Category 5 storm — tracked destruction across the Caribbean as well as the United States, killing dozens of people. The proportion of hurricanes that fall into these more intense categories 4 and 5 are expected to increase as the planet heats up, according to the most recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a well-respected climate science authority from the United Nations. Peak hurricane wind speeds are also expected to rise. “These hurricanes are getting bigger and stronger and that is due to simple energy transfer,” said Claudia Benitez-Nelson, a climate scientist at the University of South Carolina.
Related articles:
