Hurricanes and climate change

Climate change is a prolonged alteration in universal or local climate patterns. It is a major variation of average weather conditions such as conditions becoming warmer, colder, or even drier overtime. Climate change is caused by both natural processes and human activities. Compared to other years, this year has experienced the most hurricanes. A hurricane is a kind of storm referred to as a tropical cyclone that forms over tropical or subtropical seawaters. Hurricanes are a result of climate change caused by the contribution of human activity to global warming and due to the temperature changes in the ocean.

 According to Pidwirny (29), a hurricane is driven by the latent heat energy that results from precipitation. For them to form and progress, they have to be provided with a continuous supply of warm moist air for the progression to take place. Air from the surface that can produce a hurricane is present over oceans that have a temperature that is more than 26.5 degrees Celsius. Hurricanes can be very destructive when it hits the land. They form over warm tropical oceans mainly during the summer and fall seasons. Additional moisture and latent heat energy increase the power and number of storms taking place.

Hurricanes have become stronger globally during the past four decades and research shows that climate change has a great impact on making the storms more destructive and intense. Warming has increased the probability of a hurricane developing and studies show that as the world warms, hurricanes and other tropical cyclones are bound to become stronger. Warmer water provides more energy which is responsible for fuelling these hurricanes. Climate simulations have exhibited an upsurge in tougher hurricanes as warming continues. Both natural processes and human activity have been associated with increased hurricanes. The oceans have absorbed almost all of the extra energy that is generated by global warming. Human activities causing global warming create conditions that escalate the probabilities of life-threatening weather. Hurricanes have become intense due to the rise of ocean temperatures. The altitudes of the sea are rising as the oceans warm and the seawater experiences an expansion (Van Schaik et al. 3). When the expansion is joined with the land melt –built ice, the universal normal sea level rises. The growing population density in the coastlines also plays a part in the increased destructive potential of hurricanes. Too many people living along the coast have caused an incline in the exposure of populations and homes to extreme hurricanes throughout the years and this year not being an exception.

 One of the changes that are clear in the weather globally is the increased frequency of extreme precipitation events. Warm air holds more moisture increasing the amount of water available for storms to dump up as rain. Global warming has been identified as a key factor that causes increasing hurricane rainfall rates. With global warming and increased global temperatures, tropical cyclones around the world are getting major storm intensities. Scientists have identified climate change to be the cause of increased hurricanes. Increased greenhouse gases have contributed to increased hurricane activity. Recent Atlantic hurricanes that have occurred this year have undergone periods of rapid intensification before making landfall. Studies have shown an increase in Atlantic hurricane intensification throughout the years (Shultz et al. 1). This trend can only be explained by including human activity climate change as a contributing cause. Recent studies show that heavy rainfall which causes hurricanes to be very destructive is more likely to be caused by human activity warming. Warm oceanic temperatures are one of the main aspects that build up the development of a hurricane. The escalating of warm humid air from the sea causes a storm to be powered. Global warming has increased the cause and rate of hurricanes occurring. Greater levels of precipitation, higher wind speeds resulting from the warming world, increase the chances of hurricanes becoming more intense. The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season has set a new record and the warm ocean water caused by climate change is fuelling the hurricane record. Below is a picture from climate central that shows how climate change causes hurricanes.

Greenhouses are important to life on earth; plants rely on carbon dioxide gas which is a significant greenhouse gas that largely contributes to global warming. The greenhouse gas helps to maintain the surface of the earth and seas at temperatures that allow life to grow on the earth. However as greenhouses continue to increase, they inhibit more energy reaching the planet from reverting into space. The earth engrosses the sun rays energy and reemits it as high temperature (Armstrong et al 8). When this heat bumps into the greenhouse gases, the molecule absorbs the heat from the surface of the earth, it vibrates, and releases heat. This heat can follow any direction, up to the universe or down in the direction of the planet. Some heat emits out of space and some cause warming of the air, seas, and land surfaces. When people start altering the stability of the gases in the air, precisely by accelerating the concentration of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, there is an increased heat emission which includes heat that heads back to the surface of the earth. This causes the warming of the air, oceans, and land surfaces. This warming causes hurricanes and this shows that human activity is associated with climate change which has resulted in the many hurricanes being experienced today.

Research shows that the total gas emissions from greenhouses have been increasing throughout the years. Gas emissions from human actions such as burning fuels by a higher percent each year which has caused tremendous changes over multiple years. The current rate of warming is higher than it has ever been experienced (Armstrong et al 11). Temperatures are rising faster over land in the Northern region than over the ocean in the south. Observations, experiments, research evidence, and measurements have shown that the recent weather pattern changes fit the predictions of greenhouse gas climate change simulations. The greenhouse gases emitted through human activity are responsible for climate change. Part of the carbon dioxide gases produced by humans is absorbed by the ocean, making the waters more acidic (Armstrong et al 13). It also causes the rising of ocean temperatures, melting of ice, and rising sea levels.

Climate change has been associated with the changes in the Atlantic hurricane actions, causing storms to be more vicious. Anthropogenic climate change intensifies storm hazards through the warm sea and air temperatures, oceanic heat rise, and increased atmospheric humidity (Shultz et al. 1). Atlantic hurricanes have become resilient, wetter, and slower moving in the past and there is a possibility that this is from the contribution of human activities. Because of the continued contribution of human actions to climate change, oceanic levels will not drawback, the normal universal temperatures will not decrease and hence the hurricane exposures will continue being extreme. Due to the continued climate change, hurricanes will continue increasing in number and becoming more destructive mostly in states that are geographically vulnerable to warm Atlantic Ocean latitudes where hurricanes form and progress.

According to NOAA Headquarters (1), climate change has been influencing the areas in which these hurricanes occur. This observed geographical pattern cannot only be explained by natural variability. A research that was conducted used climate prototypes to assess whether greenhouse gases, human-made vaporizers which include particulate pollutants, and volcanic explosions had an impact on where the hurricanes were hitting. Greenhouse gases are the cause of the warming of the higher air and the sea. Participate pollution and other vaporizers help to develop clouds and redirect sunshine away from the planet which causes cooling. The decrease in particulate pollution because of pollution regulating strategies might intensify the warming of the sea by permitting the absorption of more sunlight by the sea. Volcanic eruptions have changed the areas where hurricanes have occurred. Research shows that climate models show decreases in tropical cyclones towards the end of the 21st century. The decreases are shown in most regions except in the Central Pacific Ocean, including Hawaii, where the tropical activity is expected to increase. However, despite the projected decline in tropical cyclones, many of these cyclones will become more severe because the rising sea temperatures fuel the intensity and destructiveness of tropical storms.

In every area of the globe where hurricanes form, the maximum continued winds tend to be becoming tougher. This may be happening because of the planet-warming which may be fuelling the increase. Over the decades, research has shown changes in the behavior of hurricanes. In 2014, there was an identification of poleward migrations of hurricanes where the tropical cyclones were heading farther north and south which exposed the previously coastal populations that were less affected to greater risk (University of Wisconsin-Madison 1). In 2018, research showed that the hurricanes were moving slowly across the land because of changes in the climate of the earth. The consequences to this are more flood dangers as hurricanes linger over more regions for a long period. Research shows that these hurricanes have become tougher both regionally and globally which is constant with prospects of the way hurricanes react to a warming sphere. This is clear evidence that global warming has influenced the hurricanes and made them stronger over the years and this year being the worst hit.

Hurricanes are a result of climate change which is either fuelled by human activities or natural processes. Increased humidity and latent heat energy increase the toughness and number of storms taking place. Warming which is a result of climate change has increased the probability of hurricanes and which are more destructive. Greenhouse gases that cause global warming cause climate change. With global warming and increased global temperatures, tropical cyclones around the world are getting major storm intensities due to the increase in greenhouses over the years Human- activity warming has also had an impact on climate change hence fuelling recent hurricanes.

Works Cited

“CLIMATE CHANGE SCIENCE: The Facts.” Communicating Climate Change: A Guide for

Educators, by Anne K. Armstrong et al., Cornell University Press, ITHACA; LONDON, 2018, pp. 7–20. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.7591/j.ctv941wjn.5. Accessed 16 Oct. 2020.

NOAA Headquarters. "Climate change has been influencing where tropical cyclones rage."

ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 4 May 2020. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/05/200504155207.htm>.