So, we had a big hurricane year in 2017, meaning it’s time for the Dire Prognostications Of Doom to sally forth
Record Heat Means Hurricanes Gain Ferocity Faster
Hurricanes are becoming more violent, more rapidly, than they did 30 years ago. The cause may be entirely natural, scientists say.
But Hurricane Harvey, which in 2017 assaulted the Gulf of Mexico and dumped unprecedented quantities of rain to cause devastating floods in Texas, happened because the waters of the Gulf were warmer than at any time on record. And they were warmer because of human-driven climate change, according to a second study.
Both studies examine the intricate machinery of a natural phenomenon, the tropical cyclone. Researchers from the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory looked at how fast four of 2017’s hurricanes—Harvey, Irma, Jose and Maria—intensified: episodes in which maximum wind speed rose by at least 25 knots, which is more than 46 kilometers (approximately 29 miles), per hour within a 24-hour period. They report in Geophysical Research Letters that they combed through 30 years of satellite data from 1986 to 2015 to find a pattern.
Researchers have repeatedly warned that hurricane hazard must increase with global warming, driven by profligate human combustion of fossil fuels that dump greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Hurricanes will hit higher latitudes and deliver more damage within the Gulf of Mexico. But climate change is only part of the answer.
The latest study did not find that storms were intensifying rapidly more often than usual. But the researchers did find that when a storm grew at speed, it became much more powerful within a 24-hour period than such storms did 30 years ago: wind speeds had gained 3.8 knots or seven kilometers (approximately 4.3 miles) an hour for each of the three decades.
So, while it could be natural, no, is has to be due to you, yes you, driving a fossil fueled vehicle.
It’s also your fault over the low hurricane, particularly major hurricane, activity from 2006-2016. Regardless, a 30 year peak at data discounts not only the rest of this current warm period, which started in the mid to late 1800’s, but what happens during a cool period. Warmists are making judgements, opinions, not science.
You know what will happen now, though, right? The Gore Effect, where hurricane activity will crash once again.
They conveniently forget the Galveston Hurricane of 1907, which was why a lot of land around Houston was designated as a wetland and no housing developments were built.
However, since it was WAY back in 1907, they decided to take a chance and build anyway and guess what? A storm came by and all that water had nowhere to drain because of all of the new subdivisions and roads and stores built.
So yeah, the floods were caused by man, but not the Climate Change.