NOAA: Human Activity Heats Up Hurricane Alley

AREA WHERE HURRICANES DEVELOP IS WARMER, SAY NOAA SCIENTISTS
The region of the tropical Atlantic where many hurricanes originate has warmed by several tenths of a degree Celsius over the 20th century, and new climate model simulations suggest that human activity, such as increasing greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere, may contribute significantly to this warming.

"This very long-term increase in temperature may seem small but is comparable in magnitude to shorter time-scale, multi-decadal changes that many scientists now believe contribute strongly to an increase in hurricane activity in the Atlantic," said Thomas Knutson, lead author of the paper and a senior research meteorologist at GFDL. "The challenge is to understand the relative roles of anthropogenic and natural factors in producing these temperature changes—and this study is a step in that direction—and then to determine whether and how these long-term changes in temperature could be affecting Atlantic hurricane activity."

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Hurricane Alley Heats Up LiveScience

Water temperatures in areas where hurricanes form in the Atlantic Ocean have warmed up over the past century and human activity could be the reason, scientists report.

A hurricane spawning region in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Africa has experienced more extreme temperature variation than other areas, according to new computer simulations that tease out the long-term change from other known variations that can last decades. The water temperature in this "hurricane alley" has risen several tenths of a degree Celsius over the 20th century.

Such models that include human activity are more realistic than those that only take into account natural forces and effects.





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