Tropical Cyclones are occurring more frequently than ever before, according to research from the Niels Bohr Institute.
New data shows that these storms are more than twice as likely to reach land during seasons of warmer temperature.
“We have calculated that extreme hurricane surges like Katrina are twice as likely in warm years than in cold years,” said Aslak Grinsted, a Climate scientist for the Centre for Ice and Climate at the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen. “So when the global climate becomes 3 degrees warmer in the future, as predictions show, what happens then?”
Over the past 40 years, advancements in technology have allowed researchers to document and analyze all tropical cyclones that form, including the ones that never reach land. Before this capability to accurately document cyclones via satellite, observations and analysis were derived mainly from ships and aircraft. Aslak Grinsted wanted to find some instruments that have stood and registered measurements continuously over a long period of time.
“We simply counted how many extreme cyclones with storm surges there were in warm years compared to cold years and we could see that there was a tendency for more cyclones in warmer years,” Grinsted said.
