As Florida recovers from the damage caused by back-to-back extreme storms, Helene and Milton, scientists are trying to understand what made these weather events so intense. A flash study on Helene points to one notable factor.
What's happening?
Hurricane Helene landed in Florida's Big Bend coastal region on Sept. 26 as a Category 4, bringing winds of up to 140 miles per hour.
Meteorologist Ryan Maue, formerly of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, calculated that Helene dumped 40 trillion gallons of rainfall on the southern states, with 20 trillion of this total falling in Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, North Carolina, and South Carolina.
Total rainfall east of the Mississippi for the past 5-days including an upper-level low and Hurricane Helene: over 40 Trillion gallons
— Ryan Maue (@RyanMaue) September 29, 2024
20 Trillion gallons fell across Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, North and South Carolina especially over mountainous terrain. pic.twitter.com/pVAbSD1R84
Milton, meanwhile, landed on Florida's west coast on Oct. 9 as a Category 3, bringing with it tornadoes, storm surge, flash flooding, powerful winds, and an abundance of rain.
A flash study has found that rising global temperatures as a result of human-caused pollution increased Helene's rainfall by 10% and its wind intensity by 11%. Milton could have been similarly affected, although there is no data just yet to suggest the scale of the impact our warming climate has had.
Climate researcher Ben Clarke from Imperial College London, who co-authored the flash study, told the Associated Press: "Hurricane Helene and the storms that were happening in the region anyway have all been amplified by the fact that the air is warmer and can hold more moisture, which meant that the rainfall totals — which, even without climate change, would have been incredibly high given the circumstances — were even higher."
Supporting these findings, a report from World Weather Attribution settled on similar figures while also noting superheated oceans supercharged Helene, with these high ocean temperatures made 200 times more likely because of human-caused pollution.
Meanwhile, The Washington Post's Post Climate Instagram account (@postclimate) shared data that showed higher sea temperatures than usual in the Gulf of Mexico intensified Hurricane Milton, with greater water evaporation into the air making storms grow faster and stronger and allowing them to carry more rain.
Why are the findings of this hurricane research concerning?
In addition to the damage, loss of life, and upending of lives and livelihoods these storms have caused, data suggests this might not be an isolated issue.
According to the NOAA, the Earth's average temperature has risen by 0.11 degrees Fahrenheit per decade since 1850, and it's showing little signs of slowing down. Meanwhile, NASA notes that 90% of the world's heating is happening in our oceans, while 2023 was the ocean's warmest year on record.
If these trends continue, we can expect to see more intense and damaging extreme weather conditions in the years to come. Hurricane season occurs annually in Florida, but as the intensity of these storms is expected to grow because of a warming planet, the risks become even more severe.
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What can be done to decrease extreme weather intensity?
As the data from various scientific studies detailed here suggests, we need to slow down the rate of rising ocean and atmospheric temperatures.
That might seem like a big challenge, but together, we can make a difference. Talk to your friends and family about collective actions you can take to decrease your personal polluting output. You could also look for available government initiatives to help save money on technology that can cut your reliance on planet-warming dirty fuels.
Even if it's just switching off your electronics at night to lower your energy consumption or picking fruit that's not wrapped in plastic when you're at the grocery store, small actions like that can eventually add up if enough of us do this together to reduce pollution.
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