A recent NOAA-led study found the speed of movement of tropical cyclones, including hurricanes, has been slowing in recent decades, with more storms lumbering slowly over land and potentially causing more flooding.
A recent NOAA-led study found the speed of movement of tropical cyclones, including hurricanes, has been slowing in recent decades, with more storms lumbering slowly over land and potentially causing more flooding.
That research by James Kossin of NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information raises the possibility that human-caused climate change might be contributing to slower tropical cyclone speeds.
However, new research published in Nature today by John R. Lanzante of NOAA’s Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory casts some doubt that tropical cyclones are slowing and that there’s a link to climate change.
Looking at global data on tropical cyclones from 1949 to 2016, Lanzante concludes that decreases in the speed of tropical cyclones observed by Kossin might not be happening at all, and could more likely be due to the significant change that satellite data made to tracking tropical cyclones – as well as natural variations in the climate.
Continue reading at NOAA.
Image via NOAA.
