By Abby Wester ’22
Staff Writer
Hanna. Isaias. Laura. These are the names of a few of the destructive hurricanes that we have already experienced in the Atlantic basin this year. The Atlantic basin consists of the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean Sea and Gulf of Mexico. Every year, from late summer to early autumn, this region experiences tropical storms reaching from the Caribbean Islands to the U.S. Coastal Gulf and up to the East Coast. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, 2020 has already been a record-setting active season.
The Atlantic hurricane season officially lasts from June 1 to Nov. 30. Storms are only named when they develop from a tropical depression to a tropical storm, which can then develop into a hurricane. An average hurricane season in the Atlantic basin produces 12 named storms, with six developing into hurricanes, and three of those becoming major hurricanes. Already in the 2020 season we have seen 20 tropical storms, seven of which developed into hurricanes.
According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, hurricanes in the North Atlantic have become more intense since 1970. There is some confidence among scientists that this is related to climate change. However, scientists have not predicted that climate change will increase the number of hurricanes, which is what we are seeing in the Atlantic basin this season.
Although science has not proven that climate change is contributing to the number of hurricanes, Professor of Geography Thomas Millette reasoned that “since the earth is getting dramatically warmer, it makes perfect sense that we are getting both higher frequency and intensity of storms.” He explained that hurricanes “are one of the atmosphere's mechanisms to globally redistribute energy from areas of high concentrations to areas of lower concentration.”
Climate change is resulting in higher temperature, and according to Millette, “more heat and more water vapor in areas of tropical storm development are the key ingredients for stronger hurricanes. Climate warming in these source areas will likely lead to increasingly stronger hurricanes.”
While the hurricane season continues to rage on in the Atlantic basin, human activity that leads to warming, such as burning fossil fuels, has not ceased. As long as human activity continues to warm the Earth, we are bound to see environmental change. In the opinion of Professor Millette, “unless we find ways to reduce warming in the source areas for tropical storm development, we are likely to see increases in both frequency and intensity of tropical storms and hurricanes in the very near future and long term as well.”