Hurricane Ian hit Florida as a Category 4 storm. In only a few short hours, whole neighborhoods were inundated as a result of the storm's persistent storm surge and rain, which was strong enough to damage homes.
Experts say human-caused climate change increases the likelihood of storms like Ian, according to an NPR report.
Hurricanes' massive size, ferocity, and precipitation are all fueled by heat. Humans consume fossil fuels and generate carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, which trap heat on Earth. Both the air and the seas are heating up, impacting the development of an Atlantic infant hurricane.
That is the case with Ian. It wasn't much of a storm when it originally began. However, it developed rapidly when it crossed the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, where the ocean is quite warm.
Within 24 hours, Hurricane Ian strengthened to hurricane status, and then again just before making landfall. Winds advanced from a Category 3 storm to a more devastating Category 5 storm.
Rising Numbers of Severe Storms
Recent years have seen an increase in the frequency of such fast amplifications, particularly in the areas near the US Gulf Coast. Every year since 2017, at least one storm that made landfall has swiftly strengthened.
Last year, just before making landfall in Louisiana, Hurricane Ida intensified. Similar things occurred with Hurricanes Harvey and Irma in 2017, Hurricane Michael in 2018, and Hurricane Laura in 2020.
Hurricane intensification is a result of climate change, according to experts at NOAA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration.
Dr. Richard Knabb, director of NOAA's National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida, explained that warming sea-surface temperatures are fuel for storms, which also depend on a wet and volatile atmosphere.
"Hurricanes appear to be peaking in strength a bit higher than they used to, and they seem to be intensifying at a rapid rate a bit more frequently," Dr. Knabb told CBS News.
Overall, he added, there doesn't appear to be a rise in the frequency of tropical storms and hurricanes; nevertheless, the number of severe storms and the maximum wind speeds of those storms seem to be on the rise.
Slower, More Dangerous Storms Ahead
Climate change undoubtedly slows storms, prolonging winds, severe floods, and precipitation that cause coastal and inland floods.
Knabb said Hurricane Ian is an example of a hazardous sluggish storm that might generate devastating winds for up to two days and drive thousands of people from their residences.
Research conducted right after Hurricane Ian suggests that climate change increased rainfall by at least 10 percent.
The non-peer-reviewed study compared peak rainfall rates during the real storm to 20 computer scenarios of Hurricane Ian crashing into Florida in a world without human-caused climate change.
According to study co-author Michael Wehner, a climate scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab, the actual storm "was 10 percent wetter than the storm that might have been.''
The Atlantic reported that there is also considerable uncertainty among climatologists on the size of future hurricanes. An often overlooked but critical factor in a hurricane's potential damage is the scale of the storm.
MIT meteorologist Kerry Emanuel said idealized computer models suggest that climate change would undoubtedly increase the frequency of these huge storms.
