International scientists have confirmed that Hurricane Milton, which claimed 16 lives in Florida this week, is one of the storms intensified by human-induced climate change. The devastative hurricane accelerated within 24 hours from being a Category 1 to a Category 5, driven by record-warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico. When it struck land, Milton had been downgraded to Category 3 but still unleashed torrential rains and winds topping 180 mph (290 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center.
In this storm, WWA researchers report that global warming added 10% to the wind speed and a worrying 20-30% to the rainfall. The extra intensity propelled Hurricane Milton into history as the third fastest-intensifying hurricane on record for the Atlantic, shedding light on how climate change is actually intensifying its influence on hurricanes.
Temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico,
Where Milton took a turn for the worse, had been particularly hot, as caused by human-induced global warming. Such temperature anomalies had previously been at most 400 to 800 times more probable than in the past. This means that, according to the report, storms like Milton, which are named for rapid strengthening and heavy rainfall, are now almost twice as likely as they would have been without global warming.
This is the second Category 5 hurricane,
To strike during this year’s Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June to November. According to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), this is one of only six years since 1950 in which more than one Category 5 hurricane has formed in a single season. Over the past five decades, scientists cite alarming trends on rapid hurricane intensification mainly due to climate change.
Ian Duff, a campaigner for Greenpeace,
Said that the need to deal with the climate crisis has never been greater, and more needs to be done against fossil fuel industries for such storms to get fierce. Florida residents, most of whom are not insured, will be left staring at staggering costs of rebuilding homes and communities wrecked by the hurricane.
As suspected by experts due to the seriously hot surface waters, this year’s Atlantic hurricane season has indeed been extremely active, with the prospects for up to seven major storms. The impact of climate change on vulnerable communities is slowly coming into the open with further supercharged hurricanes like Milton likely to hit shorelines in the future.
