Climate change fuelling fewer but stronger hurricanes, tropical storms

As per a new study, climate change may be the driving force behind fewer but yet more powerful hurricanes and tropical storms.

Florida State geography professor Jim Elsner and his former graduate student Namyoung Kang found that rising ocean temperatures do have an effect on how many tropical storms and hurricanes develop each year.

Elsner said they are seeing fewer hurricanes, but the ones they do see, are more intense. He added that when one comes, all hell can break loose.

Specifically, Elsner and Kang projected that over the past 30 years, storm speeds have increased on an average by 1.3 meters per second or three miles per hour and there were 6.1 fewer storms than there would have been if land and water temperatures had remained constant.

Kang added that in a warmer year, stronger but fewer tropical cyclones are likely to occur and in a colder year weaker but more tropical cyclones.

The study is published by Nature Climate Change.