Climate deniers like to talk about hurricane activity being “down”. What they don’t specify, is that the only thing that is down is land falling major hurricanes, Category 3 or higher on the US mainland. In fact, 2015 set a record for Category 3 and higher storms in the northern hemisphere.
Costliest in US history:
Katrina $125B
Sandy $75B
Ike $37.5B
Wilma $29.3B
Andrew $26.5B
Ivan $23.3B#laflood $20B https://t.co/pURNyJcQJm— Eric Holthaus (@EricHolthaus) August 19, 2016
Below, NASA video discusses current “drought” of landfall hurricanes in US.
Technically, Hurricane Sandy was not a “major” hurricane, as wind speeds made it a Category 1 when it came ashore, even though it’s size, power, and storm surge made it one of the most destructive storms in history.
Below, MIT’s Kerry Emanuel and others discuss the effect of climate change on this year’s hurricane season, which is just winding up.
Reblogged this on AGR Daily News Service.
Thanks for pointing this out; I’ve been making the same point to the (thankfully few) deniers in my circle who also manage to overlook how strong some of the Pacific typhoons in recent years have become.
Emanuel is the ultimate credible source.