This is very alarming considering its source.
Storm warning: Climate change to spawn more hurricanes
The Atlantic Ocean -- where most hurricanes that impact the USA come from -- is projected to see more hurricanes develop.
By Doyle Rice
The world could see as many as 20 additional hurricanes and tropical storms each year by the end of the century because of climate change, says a study out today.
The study was published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), written by top climate researcher Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Emanuel's study used six newly upgraded global climate computer models to simulate future hurricane activity around the world. His study found that these killer storms will not only increase in intensity during the 21st century, as many previous studies had predicted, but will also increase in frequency in most locations.
"Our study suggests that the largest increases might occur in the western North Pacific region, but with noticeable increases in the South Indian Ocean and in the North Atlantic region," he says. Most hurricanes that affect the USA form in the Atlantic.
"It is important to emphasize that most studies suggest that the frequency of the highest category tropical cyclones (those of Category 3 and higher on the Saffir-Simpson scale) should increase as the globe warms," Emanuel says. "There is less agreement about the frequency of the weakest category of storms."
Category 3 storms have sustained wind speeds of at least 111 mph. Any Category 3, 4 or 5 hurricane is classified as a "major" hurricane.
If rising seas wasn't enough,
if increasing firestorms in Western Forests wasn't enough,
if deeper drought and/or bigger floods wasn't enough
maybe more Hurricanes and more big Hurricanes will be the unsettling developments that finally breaks through the climate deniers' rigid refusal to acknowledge the new realities of life on Earth.
Hurricane Sandy