STORMY WEATHER AHEAD

Joaquin was the strongest Atlantic hurricane of nontropical origin in the satellite era. In fact, the Minouche was not the only ship it claimed.

El Faro, a 790-foot American freighter, also crossed paths with Joaquin. After El Faro’s captain called for help on October 1, his radio went silent; when the Coast Guard reached the area where the freighter was most likely to be, they found only debris. All 33 crew members perished.

El Faro now rests on the ocean floor.

The year 2015 was particularly bad for hurricanes. A couple of weeks after El Faro went down, a Category 5 storm named Patricia swelled in the Pacific over what the National Hurricane Center described as “anomalously warm waters.” Winds reached 213 miles per hour, making it the most intense storm on record in the eastern North Pacific.

Meteorologists warn that Joaquin and Patricia may be harbingers of storms to come.

On a warming planet, seawater evaporates more quickly, transferring heat to the atmosphere, which in turn feeds swirling winds. More heat begets faster evaporation—which leads to stronger winds. The result will likely be multiplying superstorms, such as Hurricanes Harvey and Irma. “The frequency of hurricanes may go down,” said

Kerry Emanuel, professor of atmospheric science at MIT, “but the incidence of the high-end storms— Category 4s and 5s— should go up.”