Climate change is causing hurricanes that make landfall to take more time to weaken, reports a study published today in leading journal, Nature.
Climate change is causing hurricanes that make landfall to take more time to weaken, reports a study published today in leading journal, Nature.
The researchers showed that hurricanes that develop over warmer oceans carry more moisture and therefore stay stronger for longer after hitting land. This means that in the future, as the world continues to warm, hurricanes are more likely to reach communities farther inland and be more destructive.
“The implications are very important, especially when considering policies that are put in place to cope with global warming,” said Professor Pinaki Chakraborty, senior author of the study and head of the Fluid Mechanics Unit at the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST). “We know that coastal areas need to ready themselves for more intense hurricanes, but inland communities, who may not have the know-how or infrastructure to cope with such intense winds or heavy rainfall, also need to be prepared.”
Many studies have shown that climate change can intensify hurricanes – known as cyclones or typhoons in other regions of the world – over the open ocean. But this is the first study to establish a clear link between a warming climate and the smaller subset of hurricanes that have made landfall.
Read more at Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST) Graduate University
Photo Credit: 12019 via Pixabay
