Warm Ocean Water Fuels Stronger Hurricanes As Climate Change Intensifies Storms — How Global Warming Impacts Severe Weather Conditions

Hurricanes are getting bigger and more destructive as temperatures rise around the world.

As time passes, it becomes clearer that climate change is linked to abnormal weather. Warmer ocean temperatures make strong storms possible.

Warm Ocean Water Fuels Stronger Hurricanes as Climate Change Intensifies Storms — (Photo: Getty Images/ Handout)

How Do Hurricanes Form?

Hurricane Dorian damaged the Bahamas in 2019, showing how warmer seas support strong storms. Warming is also happening in places that have been cooler in the past, like the northern Atlantic Ocean.

This creates new risks for people living in the Atlantic hurricane area. According to the latest data, the world's oceans are hotter than ever, making storms more potent.

A hurricane starts as a group of storms over the ocean. Across the eastern Atlantic, a jet stream going west is known as the African Easterly Jet. It begins off the west coast of Africa and moves across the ocean.

As these winds blow over the ocean, they drain water and send it into the air, where it cools, condenses, and forms storm clouds. About 85% of the major storms in the Atlantic start off the coast of Africa.

These storms can become tropical depressions if they hit enough warm water and west-to-east winds. The Coriolis effect, which describes how things move across the Earth's surface as it spins, makes storms in the Northern Hemisphere spin counterclockwise.

The heat of the ocean surface and the depth of warm water are significant factors in determining the strength of a storm. When a tropical depression is over warm water, it soaks up more warm water vapor, making the system stronger and the low-pressure center smaller.

This is what makes a tropical storm happen. As the storm keeps picking up water vapor, it sets off a feedback loop that allows a hurricane's eye to form if the low-pressure center stays put.

How Does Climate Change Affect Hurricanes?

Scientists perform an "attribution analysis" to determine how a certain storm is related to climate change. They can figure out how a storm would have behaved in different climate conditions by simulating what the climate might have been like if temperatures hadn't been higher.

It was found that climate change made the oceans warmer and the storms rainier during the 2020 season. About 7% more water vapor can be held in the atmosphere for every degree the temperature rises.

In addition, storms are getting much stronger quickly because the oceans are warmer. This can happen in less than a day, making it harder for meteorologists to predict how storms will behave and send quick warnings.

Recently, Hurricane Beryl hit Texas after bringing chaos to the Caribbean. Hot water temperatures helped Beryl go from a minor storm to a Category 5 hurricane quickly in just two days. It's happening more often that storm seasons get more robust, making them more dangerous and hard to plan.

Consistently high ocean temperatures point to a storm season that could be very bad. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says that there will be more storms than usual this year.

Climate change may not be making more storms, but it is making them stronger, moving faster, and moving slower. This trend makes it clear that we must move immediately to stop and lessen the bad weather caused by global warming.