If you think Hurricane Sandy was bad, you might be in for some bad news: the next one will be even worse. Researchers from the University of Iowa have recently compiled a report in the Journal of Climate that tracks patterns and trends in North Atlantic tropical storms, and its conclusions are not for the faint of heart. Tropical storms will get bigger, faster, and stronger, unless our century-long addiction to fossil fuels comes to an end.
Using the predictive power of 17 cutting-edge climate models and three scenario simulations, the researchers anticipated changes to the North Atlantic Power Dissipation Index (PDI), a measure of storm intensity, duration, and frequency. They found that although there will not be any more storms than average, their intensities will likely increase. Referencing earlier work published on May 13, 2012 in the journal Nature Climate Change, the scientists found that increases in particle pollution and greenhouse gas levels over the North Atlantic are likely to cause more severe hurricanes. Scenarios with the least carbon dioxide emission featured the least intense storms, and vice versa.
With the advent of greener technologies, humanity may indeed be well on its way to cutting down its greenhouse emissions to manageable levels. The problem is that there is an inherent lag in the climate’s response to our activities, so we will probably be seeing some nasty storms well into the foreseeable future.
Source: Science Daily
