Long periods of warm Atlantic Ocean conditions produce greater hurricane activity, says research
Atlantic hurricanes are not only becoming more frequent but they could also be getting stronger, suggested new research.
Long periods of warm Atlantic Ocean conditions produce greater Atlantic hurricane activity, said the research.
‘It seems that the data support the contention that greenhouse warming may increase the frequency of Atlantic tropical storms,’ said Michael Mann, lead author of the study. ‘It may not be just that the storms are stronger, but that there may be more of them as well.’
“We are at levels now that are about as high as anything we have seen in the past 1,000 years.
Michael Mann, professor of meteorology at Penn State
Pennsylvania State University climatologists reconstructed past hurricane activity in the Atlantic Ocean over the past 1,500 years and tracked the amount of sediment deposited during landfall hurricanes. The results of the research were published in Nature.
‘We are at levels now that are about as high as anything we have seen in the past 1,000 years,’ said Mann, also professor of meteorology at Penn State.
But he also explained that heightened hurricane activity since the mid-1990s, which is at its highest since records began, could be the result of more accurate data since the advent of air travel and satellites. ‘It is therefore difficult to assess if the recent increase in hurricane activity is in fact unusual,’ said Mann.
