Extreme Temperature Diary- Thursday November 21st, 2024/Main Topic: Climate Change Increased Wind Speeds for Every 2024 Atlantic Hurricane – Guy On Climate
Dear Diary. New science on climate change gets announced practically every week these days, firming up the fact that carbon pollution is making storms worse and heatwaves longer and hotter. This week the former got cemented with new research from Climate Central indicating that wind speeds increased significantly for each 2024 Atlantic hurricane. Helene was the worst for the U.S. because hurricane force winds occurred from the system as far north as the Southern Appalachians where residents will be recovering from devastation for many years to come.
Here is Climate Central’s report:
climatecentral.org
Climate change increased wind speeds for every
2024 Atlantic hurricane: Analysis
Read the full report: Climate change increased wind speeds for every 2024 Atlantic hurricane: Analysis
IntroductionClimate change increased maximum wind speeds for every Atlantic hurricane in 2024, according to a Climate Central analysis based on new, peer-reviewed research. Human-caused global warming elevated ocean temperatures and boosted all eleven storms’ intensities, increasing their highest sustained wind speeds by 9 to 28 miles per hour. This increase moved seven of the hurricanes into a higher Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale category and strengthened Hurricanes Debby and Oscar from tropical storms into hurricanes.
This analysis used the methodology from a new study published on November 20, 2024, in Environmental Research: Climate, which introduced a rapid attribution framework to assess the impact of human-caused ocean warming on hurricane intensities. The study, Human-caused ocean warming has intensified recent hurricanes(Gilford et al., 2024), applied this framework to Atlantic hurricanes from 2019-2023, and these findings cover the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season.
Key findings- All eleven hurricanes in 2024 (as of November 10) intensified by 9-28 mph during the record-breaking ocean warmth of the 2024 hurricane season, strengthening over waters made as much as 2.5°F warmer because of climate change.
- Climate change made elevated sea surface temperatures (SST) in the tracks of 2024 hurricanes up to 800 times more likely.
- Human-warmed ocean temperatures made major hurricanes Helene and Milton even stronger, adding 16 mph and 23 mph, respectively.
 HurricaneMaximum intensityIncrease in maximum intensity |
| Beryl | 165 mph | 18 mph | | Debby | 80 mph | 9 mph | | Ernesto | 100 mph | 18 mph | | Francine | 90 mph | 13 mph | | Helene | 140 mph | 16 mph | | Isaac | 105 mph | 28 mph | | Kirk | 145 mph | 20 mph | | Leslie | 105 mph | 18 mph | | Milton | 175 mph | 23 mph | | Oscar | 80 mph | 9 mph | | Rafael | 120 mph | 28 mph |
Table 1. Observed hurricane maximum wind speeds (mph) before landfall and the increases in wind speed due to human-caused ocean warming for each storm during the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season (through November 11, 2024). Major funding provided by the Bezos Earth Fund.
Much More:
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