(Ten-minute read)  

 

Why?

Because the maximum intensity of hurricanes will increase by about 5% this century. 

Because there is growing evidence that the warming of the atmosphere and upper ocean, due to human activity such as burning fossil fuels, is making conditions ripe for fiercer, more destructive hurricanes.

Warming oceans conditions are ideal for spawning hurricanes.

While there is no consensus on the frequency of hurricanes in a warmer world, there is a consensus that the hurricanes are becoming more intense, and hence their impact will be worse.

Meanwhile, natural buffers to hurricanes, such as mangroves and coral reefs, are being stripped away around the world as a result of coastal development, pollution and warming waters.

THERE WAS A TIME WHEN STORMS HAD NO NAMES – A GALE FORCE

Now males and female names alternated because we are less afraid of hurricanes with female names.

Hurricane Florence killed dozens or so people. Hurricane Michael, killed about 70th, Hurricane Harvey unloaded 33tn gallons of water on Texas, Hurricane Irma, which reached a top speed of 177mph, ravaged Florida and several thousand people died in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria. Hurricane Katrina had 1,833 fatalities. Hurricane Dorian barrel into the northwestern Bahamas ravaging the Abaco Islands, killings 20.

Particularly devastating hurricanes cause names to be retired, which is why we won’t see a Hurricane Katrina, for example, again.

Now Storms are given names once they have sustained winds of more than 39mph so insurance companies don’t have to pay out home insurance policies if named storms are do not specify in their cover. ( Premiums may rise as insurers face ballooning claims.)

The Saffir-Simpson scale is now irrational, in part, because it deals only with wind, ignoring factors such as a storm’s size, rainfall potential and forward speed. 

The scale was designed to measure the amount of damage inflicted by winds, not the severe flooding due to storm surge.

The proportion of tropical storms that rapidly strengthen into powerful hurricanes has tripled over the past 30 years

Perhaps its time to classify hurricanes as predators.

DANGEROUS: 

SEVERE- DEVASTATION: Enough force to damage homes and snap trees.

LIFE-THREATENING: 

GET -OUT:  Raze dwellings, causing widespread power outages and result in scores of deaths.

APOCALYPTIC: Stay put and die. 

 

In general, hurricanes are steered by global winds. The prevailing winds that surround a hurricane, also known as the environmental wind field, are what guide a hurricane along its path.

In 2016, for the first time since 1938, a hurricane formed in the Atlantic in January- Hurricane Alex.

While the eye of a hurricane is typically very calm and nearly windless, the eyewall is the fiercest part of the story, where winds are strongest.

A hurricane can pick up as much as two billion tons of water a day through evaporation and sea sprays. If the heat released by an average hurricane in one day could be converted to electricity, it could supply the United States’ electrical needs for about six months.

Those who deny scientific findings of climate change in favour of magical thinking and other such fallacies will only leave the world a more unstable and dangerous place for future generations to come.

 

All human comments appreciated. All like clicks and abuse chucked in the bin.