ARE HURRICANES GETTING STRONGER?

As Earth’s climate changes, extreme weather is too

There’s no doubt that our climate is changing – NASA says the evidence is unequivocal. Current warming is happening faster than at any other time in the past 10,000 years. But the effect a warmer world will have on hurricanes is hard to predict. Rising global temperatures are likely to impact hurricanes because tropical cyclones feed on warm, wet air. But the complex nature of these storms makes it impossible to know exactly how they’ll change over time. On average, the evidence suggests that hurricanes are likely to become more frequent and more dangerous. As the world gets warmer, the air will get wetter, and wetter air means heavier rain. It’s chemistry: the hotter it is, the more evaporation there will be. Storm-induced flooding will also be more likely as ice sheets melt and the sea expands.