Scientists: Hurricanes now much worse

| 12/11/2019 | 22 Comments
Cayman News Service
Hurricane Dorian devastated parts of the Bahamas

(CNS): A group of scientists have found that hurricanes are getting much more intense and destructive, largely as a result of climate change, after they worked out how to separate the changes in economics of an area from the actual physical damage. In the past, measuring damage from storms has been controversial because increased damage might be due to an increase in people and wealth where they strike. But a new model allowed them to look at the land itself rather than what was on it to determine storm impacts.

The biggest and most damaging hurricanes are now three times more frequent than they were 100 years ago, the scientists found. Publishing in a US-based academic journal this week, the researchers explained how they measured historic damage, as researchers in the field agree that atmospheric models predict that major hurricanes will get more intense as Earth warms.

“Our data reveal an emergent positive trend in damage which we attribute to a detectable change in extreme storms due to global warming,” the authors stated, adding that the model they have used is a more reliable measure for climate-related changes in extreme weather and can be used for better risk assessments on hurricane disasters.

Using this new method of calculating the destruction, the scientists said the increase in intensity and frequency of the worst of storms is “unequivocal”. And global warming is fuelling the increase.

In the past measuring damage has concluded that the increase was related to wealth, but instead of looking just at the economics, these scientists looked at the land itself that was destroyed from more than 240 storms between 1900 and 2018.

See the full details of the research published on PNAS


Share your vote!


How do you feel after reading this?
  • Fascinated
  • Happy
  • Sad
  • Angry
  • Bored
  • Afraid
Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Tags: ,

Category: Climate Change, Science & Nature

Comments (22)

Trackback URL | Comments RSS Feed

  1. Anonymous says:

    Today, the words scientist and science mean nothing to me. Whoever pays get scientific results that they need.
    Yet, one has to be blind, deaf and Dumb not to see that the planet Earth, and most importantly its oceans are so messed up, that like an ill organism in agony it produces all kind of unnatural “natural” events.
    Would the Earth restore its balance? As someone who believes in Gaia hypothesis, I say Yes.
    At what cost? At the cost of human existence, for humans are the cause of imbalance.

    5
    3
    • Anonymous says:

      climate change is already harming people’s health by increasing the number of extreme weather events.
      A warmer world brings risks of food shortages, infectious diseases, floods and extreme heat.

  2. Anonymous says:

    cns:..i don’t believe in censorship but not sure if idiot climate change deniers should be allowed to post their nonsense on your site…..
    they are on the same level of flat earth folks….why entertain this rubbish?

    10
    1
  3. Anonymous says:

    “And it’s gonna be really cold this winter so global warming must be a liberal hoax.”

    God, people are stupid.

    11
  4. Anonymous says:

    The new 21st century definition of stupidity: Taking the word of Fox News and conservative politicians on climate science over that of the overwhelming majority of climate scientists.

    #lame

    18
    8
    • Anonymous says:

      yep….fake news rules. we are all doomed.

      5
      1
    • Anonymous says:

      Pffft – what do the so-called scientists know? They’re just a bunch of overeducated liberal elites who want more money in grants to study things the Bible tells us about already. I know this because Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones told me so, and they’re just about exposing the truth. Got to go now; I’m late for my second lobotomy!

      6
      2
  5. Anonymous says:

    We havent had a bad hurricane since Ivan.

    8
    6
    • Pete says:

      tell cayman brac that after Paloma

      12
    • Anonymous says:

      Dear 3:55 commentator,

      “We” are a dot on the ocean, moron. How many hurricanes do or do not hit us means nothing globally.

      Science is real, regardless of how irrational you are.

      18
      5
    • J|) says:

      The Bahamas slowly lowers their coffee and looks at you with a stink eye

      11
  6. Anonymous says:

    Complete bullshit

    10
    20
    • Anonymous says:

      And what scientific degree do you hold? It’s nice that you can just act like it’s complete bullshit because it doesn’t fit into your political agenda but the fact of the matter is we are destroying ourselves. The development on this island is out-of-control. A hurricane is going to hit and because we’ve removed a lot of the vegetation we are going to see flooding that will make Ivan look like a tropical storm.

      20
      3
      • Anonymous says:

        3:53 But that’s nothing to do with climate change is it? This our own stupidity destroying the natural defences these islands have built up over hundreds of years so that someone can make a quick buck.

        • Anonymous says:

          Get it through your thick skull climate change is man-made that’s our point!!! And we must do something different to save us!!! get a freaking clue man..

    • Anonymous says:

      Wow, such a profound statement. You should reword this comment and put it in for peer review. You’ll have a Nobel Prize by the end of the year.

      6
      4
    • Anonymous says:

      2:57 Sadly, that’s true. These ‘scientists’ are just riding the climate change gravy train.

      I was in Florida and the Bahamas after Andrew in 1992. I was back there during the 1999 season – Floyd, Gert and Harvey. In 2008 I remember Gustav, Ike and Paloma.

      If anything hurricane season is backing off.

      Go back to 1935 – the Labor Day Hurricane that destroyed Flagler’s Railroad in the Keys. Back then there weren’t the means to record the severity of the storm but it was certainly a sustained Cat 5. Hurricanes happen during hurricane season – that’s nature.

      11
      16
      • john says:

        instead of talking what you dont know go to the national hurricane center and do your research. the number of cat IV/V hurricanes are increasing

        14
        5
      • Anonymous says:

        But you don’t list you were in Florida in 2004/2005 ?

      • Anonymous says:

        You know that 1992 was one of the least active hurricane seasons every, don’t you? There were only 7 named storms and only 4 hurricanes, three of which were fish storms. Only Andrew made landfall. That doesn’t make it a bad hurricane season, although it made it bad for South Florida. In addition, Andrew – the “A” storm, didn’t get its name until August 17, more than six weeks after it happens on average.
        The 2019 hurricane was the fourth consecutive season with above average activity. During the last three years, Irma, Maria, Michael and Dorian have all been killer, landfalling Cat 5s that that caused billions of dollars of damage.
        You don’t know what you’re talking about, so it’s best to hush.

    • Anonymous says:

      I suppose you also don’t believe that smoking is bad for you, or that seat belts save lives? And of course you won’t go near any of those nasty vaccines….

Leave a Reply to Anonymous Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.