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HURRICANES MILTON AND HELENE WERE INTENSIFIED BY CLIMATE CHANGE,
RESEARCHERS FIND  
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Michael Riojas
October 16, 2024
EcoWatch
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_ Hurricanes Helene and Milton are following the trend of these
storms becoming supercharged and more likely to form, according to a
pair of studies from the World Weather Attribution. _

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Hurricanes
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most powerful storms on Earth—are becoming more widespread and
destructive as a warming planet increases their intensity.
Hurricanes Helene
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following the trend of these storms becoming supercharged and more
likely to form, according to a pair of studies from the World Weather
Attribution (WWA). 

The researchers found that Hurricane Helene’s
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speed on the coast of Florida was about 11 percent stronger due to
climate change, and its total rainfall increased by 10 percent. The
high water temperatures that fueled Helene were found to be between
200 and 500 times more likely, and hurricanes the size of Helene are
now 2.5 times more likely each year due to climate change, according
to the report.

As for Hurricane Milton, the researchers found storms of its intensity
are now 40 percent more common, hurricanes with heavy one-day events
similar to Milton are 20-30 percent more intense and twice as likely,
and the maximum wind speeds of similar storms are about 10 percent
stronger due to climate change. 

This increase in wind speed, as the analysis points out, means that
without human influence, Milton would have been a category 2 storm
rather than category 3 when it made landfall, if it had formed at all.

“We conclude that warmer Sea Surface Temperatures along the track of
Hurricane Milton were strongly influenced by climate change, which
affected Milton’s environment and made it more likely for the storm
to develop and intensify throughout its lifetime,” the researchers
wrote.

The conditions that lead to the formation of hurricanes are complex,
but there are a few general factors that influence their formation and
behavior in the Atlantic Ocean. 

Hurricanes in the Atlantic typically form near the inter-tropical
convergence zone—a low-pressure band roughly encompassing the
equator, where the trade winds from the northern and southern
hemispheres meet and are forced high into the atmosphere. This creates
a stormy ring around the planet, which, combined with warm equatorial
waters that evaporate into the atmosphere, creates ripe conditions for
hurricanes, especially during hurricane season, from the beginning of
June to the end of November.

Once a hurricane forms here, trade winds often push them Northwest,
toward the Gulf of Mexico.

But these conditions are becoming even more conducive for hurricanes
with climate change.

Bernadette Woods Placky, Chief Meteorologist at Climate Central, said
the warming oceans and atmosphere are “like steroids for
hurricanes,” according to a press release from the WWA.

“As Helene approached the U.S., it strengthened from a Category 2 to
a Category 4 hurricane in just ten hours,” she said. “This rapid
intensification is happening more often with climate change. If humans
keep heating the climate, we will keep seeing storms rapidly morph
into monster hurricanes, leading to more destruction.”

Hurricane Helene, which first hit Northern Florida as a category four
storm and went on to devastate significant parts of Georgia, Western
North Carolina and South Carolina, Eastern Tennessee and Southern
Virginia, killed more than 200 people
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the highest U.S. death toll from a hurricane since Katrina in 2005.

“There were many things that went right. For example, the major dams
held, the hurricane was forecast and emergency evacuations were
declared… and yet we still had a huge death toll,” Julie Arrighi,
director of programs at the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Center,
told reporters in a briefing. 

She added, “I think that we start to see spots where there may have
been things that need further unpacking in the days and weeks
ahead—were there more evacuation options or not in some of the
areas, for example—but I think it will be really interesting to see
how this gets further analyzed through time.”

Along with Florida being at risk for hurricanes given its location in
the Gulf of Mexico, the researchers in the flash study for Hurricane
Milton attribute its low elevation and large coastal populations as
major risk factors for these storms.

The study also noted that low-income areas and racial minority
communities face the greatest risk from these storms, due to
“inadequate housing and resources for adequate preparedness,
evacuation, and recovery.” 

Also mentioned was the major stress placed upon infrastructure as
millions tried to evacuate, leading to “severely congested”
highways, while gas stations ran out of fuel, and the out flux of
people led to crowded hotels and motels, many of which weren’t
equipped to accommodate guests with “disabilities or health
issues.” In addition, the researchers noted that while 37 percent of
Americans cannot afford a $400 emergency, it can cost thousands for
evacuees to seek refuge.

“We really need to be adapting and preparing for these
unprecedented, very extreme events,” Arrighi said. “Even in a
country that has a lot of preparedness—a lot of emergency readiness
 we still see these high impacts. Increasing the preparedness of
these systems for these really large events is, I’m sure, a topic
that will be talked about for many weeks and months to come.”

_Michael Riojas is a reporter and editorial assistant for EcoWatch
with a BS in Journalism and a certificate in Environmental Studies,
Sustainability & Resilience from Ohio University. He also specialized
in environmental studies for his journalism degree. He’s interested
in philosophy, politics, and all things environmental. Before he was a
reporter, he was an intern for Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur and has
since advocated for extensive environmental action._

_EcoWatch is a long-time leader in environmental news. Founded in 2005
as an Ohio-based environmental newspaper, today we are a digital
platform still dedicated to publishing quality, science-based content
on environmental issues, causes, and solutions. While we’ve grown
from a grassroots newspaper of 80,000 print copies to a site with a
digital audience of more than two million monthly readers, we are
still committed to our founding principle: creating a sustainable
future._

* Climate Change
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* Hurricanes
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