Science Daily May 18, 2020
Previous work by a team of researchers at NOAA identified trends in hurricane intensification across a 28-year data set. To increase confidence in the results, the researchers extended the study to include global hurricane data from 1979-2017. Using analytical techniques that rely on infrared temperature measurements from geostationary satellites to estimate hurricane intensity, they were able to create a more uniform data set to identify trends. They demonstrated that hurricanes are moving more slowly across land due to changes in Earth’s climate. This has resulted in greater flood risks as storms hover over cities and other areas, often for extended periods of time. The results show that the storms have become stronger on global and regional levels, which is consistent with expectations of how hurricanes respond to a warming world, but the results don’t tell us precisely how much of the trends are caused by human activities and how much may be just natural variability…read more. TECHNCAL ARTICLE
Illustration of hurricane seen from space (stock image; elements furnished by NASA). Credit: © Mike Mareen / stock.adobe.com