Slow-Moving Monsters: Climate Change Will Spawn More Storms Like Ian

LOADING ERROR LOADING Climate change is driving up ocean temperatures around the globe. Physically, there are very straightforward things that you can unfortunately expect from that.” In just a few days, Ian grew from a tropical storm to a major hurricane — a phenomenon known as “rapid intensification.” It slammed into Cuba on Tuesday, leaving a trail of destruction and knocking out power across the island nation. Along with catastrophic winds, the hurricane is expected to unleash “life-threatening storm surge” of up to 18 feet and torrential rain of 20 or more inches in some areas, according to the National Hurricane Center’s latest update. The 2015 National Climate Assessment, a congressionally mandated report, concluded that “hurricane intensity and rainfall are projected to increase as the climate continues to warm.” A 2020 federal study analyzed satellite data over a 40-year period and found that planetary warming increased the likelihood of a tropical cyclone becoming a major hurricane ― Category 3 strength or higher ― by approximately 8% per decade. And a landmark United Nations report last year concluded that climate change is driving “an increase in the proportion of intense tropical cyclones” and that “the proportion of intense tropical cyclones and peak wind speeds of the most intense tropical cyclones are projected to increase at the global scale with increasing global warming.” Research also shows there’s been a marked slowdown in hurricanes’ speed over both water and land, leading to increased risk of torrential rain, flooding and storm surge.