Active Atlantic hurricane periods, like the one we are in now, are not necessarily a harbinger of more, rapidly intensifying hurricanes along the U.S. coast, according to new research performed at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
Active Atlantic hurricane periods, like the one we are in now, are not necessarily a harbinger of more, rapidly intensifying hurricanes along the U.S. coast, according to new research performed at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.
In fact, the research — published Wednesday (Jan. 4, 2017) in the journal Nature by James Kossin, a federal atmospheric research scientist based at the UW — indicates that hurricanes approaching the U.S. are more likely to intensify during less active Atlantic periods. During more active periods, they are more likely to weaken.
The relationship between the number of hurricanes that develop in the Atlantic basin and the number of major hurricanes that make landfall is a weak one, says Kossin, and one that has not yet been well explained. The new study accounts for at least part of that relationship.
Historically, notes Kossin, researchers (including himself) have focused primarily on the tropical Atlantic — the main hurricane development region —without distinguishing how hurricane-producing conditions may vary outside of it.
Read more at University of Wisconsin-Madison
Photo credit: NOAA / Satellite and Information Service via Wikimedia Commons
