Hurricane Milton is bringing the eastern United States to its knees: a study explains how these phenomena are closely linked to climate change.
Hurricane Milton is pummeling the eastern United States. American President Biden defined it as the “storm of the century”. There have been nine hurricanes so far during the so-called “Atlantic hurricane season” in 2024, four of which have reached major hurricane status. Among other things, in September Hurricane Helene made landfall in the south-east, causing catastrophic damage. Milton went from Category 1 to Category 5 in just 18 hours: the second fastest intensification in the history of the Atlantic basin. However, until now, no one had linked these extreme phenomena to climate change.
What do hurricanes have to do with climate change
Jillian Gregg, co-author of the new , argues that the intensification of recent hurricanes may be linked to climate change. He says, “Hurricanes have definitely increased the intensity of hurricanes. And that’s caused by this drastic change in ocean temperatures that started a year ago. We observed it month by month.” Gregg explained that the difference is that over the past year, every month ocean temperatures have far exceeded anything that has ever been measured before.
The more ocean water warms, the greater the risk of violent hurricanes
“Warmer water leads to more evaporation into the air, which is also warmer. So that atmosphere gets warmer and that warm air can hold more moisture. So when you have a hurricane or it rains, the amount of rain that can fall from the atmosphere is dramatically higher and causes all this flooding,” Gregg adds. And it’s not just the humidity of the atmosphere. It is also the raising up. “If the hurricane hits and causes a storm surge, then rising seas will also cause more flooding,” Gregg concluded. Climate change is also linked to smaller hurricanes, such as Hurricane Debby in August or Harvey in 2017.
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