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Is Hurricane Harvey a harbinger of Houston's future?

Tropical cyclones also have many different characteristics that might change in unpredictable ways

Hurricane Harvey threatens Texas' booming oil, energy exports
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Hurricane Harvey comes ashore in Corpus Christi, Texas, US. Photo: Reuters

Andrew King | The Conversation

Over the past week we have seen two major tropical storms devastate different parts of the world. First Typhoon Hato struck Hong Kong and Southern China killing at least a dozen people. And over the weekend Hurricane Harvey made landfall from the Gulf of Mexico, bringing extremely heavy rain to southern Texas and causing devastating floods in Houston.

Tropical cyclones are, of course, a natural feature of our climate. But the extreme impacts of these recent storms, especially in Houston, has understandably led to questions over whether climate change is to blame.

How are tropical cyclones