Hurricane season becoming busier, deadlier as waters warm

On September 10th, we officially hit the peak of the Atlantic Hurricane Season. While the number of tropical systems has been less than impressive this season, the ones that have impacted the United States have been devastating with some including a rapid intensification process right before landfall. It’s a process that is becoming more common and problematic as climate change continues.

Rapid intensification is termed as the process in which a tropical system intensifies 35 mph o9ver 24 hours. Extreme rapid intensification is defined as a tropical system intensifying 58 mph or more over a 24-hour period. From 1980 to 2023, 177 landfalling Atlantic tropical cyclones have rapidly intensified and a quarter of them experienced extreme rapid intensification.

The reason behind the rapid intensification process can mainly be attributed to the constantly warm to hot ocean water temperatures. In fact, data shows that, on average, ocean temperatures have been the hottest this year than they have ever been. This means despite a lack luster season, any one storm could rapidly intensify, fueled by those warm waters resulting in record breaking cyclone. Remember, it only takes one.

Speaking of numbers, the five most costly tropical cyclones since 1980 have struck the U.S. in the last 20 or so years. The total cost of damage between just the five of them have totaled 680 billion dollars. One of the more devastating, costly storms in our area this year has been Beryl. Data shows that human caused climate change made the warm ocean waters that fueled Beryl 400 times more likely to happen. That was a life altering storm that some folks continue to recover from during what has been a rare, below average, yet deadly hurricane season.

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