Yale Climate Connections reports:

Human-caused climate change boosted the wind speeds of recent Atlantic hurricanes, making them more damaging and costly, according to a pair of scientific reports released today.

Research published in the journal Environmental Research: Climate, “Human-caused ocean warming has intensified recent hurricanes,” found that between 2019 and 2023, the maximum sustained winds of Atlantic hurricanes were 19 mph (31 km/h) higher because of human-caused ocean warming.

And a parallel report by Climate Central, a nonprofit scientific research organization, applied the techniques developed in the Environmental Research paper to the 2024 hurricane season, finding that climate change increased maximum wind speeds for all 11 Atlantic hurricanes in 2024, increasing their highest sustained wind speeds by nine to 28 mph (14-45 km/h).

This increase in wind speeds moved seven of the hurricanes into a higher Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale category and strengthened Hurricanes Debby and Oscar from tropical storms into hurricanes. The report found that without human-warmed ocean temperatures, Hurricane Beryl and Milton would have been Category 4 storms, but the extra human-caused warming increased their winds by 18 mph (29 km/h) and 23 mph (37 km/h), respectively, lifting them to Category 5 strength. [Continue reading…]