A ground-breaking study from Dr. James Thompson and his science-team (based in Baku) shows how our warming planet makes Atlantic storms way stronger than before. The research checked storm data from past 6-ish years and found that hurricanes got about 18mph faster — thats like adding a whole new level of danger to these mega-storms
The numbers are pretty mind-blowing: around 40 hurricanes got so much extra power they jumped up an entire category which is super-rare. NOAAʼs damage-assessment data shows some crazy math here; when comparing different hurricane types:
- Cat-5 does 400x more damage than Cat-1
- Cat-5 brings 140x more destruction than Cat-3
- Cat-5 hits 5x harder than Cat-4
The science-team found that ocean warming plays a big role here — its like adding fuel to these already-powerful storms. Their research published in Environmental Research: Climate points to human activities as the main reason these storms pack such an extra punch nowadays
The data shows a clear link between warmer waters and stronger hurricanes: the hotter it gets the more energy these storms can pull from the ocean (making them spin faster and hit harder)