Hurricanes get stronger on land as world warms
North Atlantic hurricanes are retaining far more of their strength when they hit land because of global warming, say scientists. Previously, experts believed these storms died down quickly once they made landfall. But over the past 50 years, the time it takes for hurricanes to dissipate on the coast has almost doubled.
Researchers says that climate change gives the storms more energy, which continues to power them over land. The scientists involved say that this will likely make hurricanes more damaging further inland in years to come.
This year, the North Atlantic has already broken the record for the number of named storms, with Hurricane Theta becoming the 29th storm of the season – beating the 28 that formed in 2005. Experts have noted that in recent years, tropical storms that make land are persisting far longer and doing more damage than in the past. In 2017, Houston, Texas, was inundated when Hurricane Harvey settled over the city for several days, dumping 127 billion tonnes of water on the US’ fourth largest city. It was one of the heaviest precipitation events in the recorded history of hurricanes. Now, researchers have shown that climate change is preventing these storms from decaying quickly when they move onto dry land.(BBC)…[+]