Here’s why hurricanes are rapidly exploding in strength in recent years

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The unforgettable thing about record-setting Hurricane Michael will always be how rapidly it became a near-Category 5 storm, perfectly timed for a sneak attack on the Florida Panhandle. On Tuesday morning, Floridians knew a storm was coming but not how strong it would be. As of 5 a.m., Michael was a strong Category 1 hurricane with a minimum pressure of 973 millibars, a measure of atmospheric pressure indicating that air is rising in the storm, pulling winds toward its center. The official forecast took the storm up to mid-Category 3 at landfall. But 24 hours later, Michael was already far stronger: It now had 140 mph winds and a pressure falling sharply. The wind speed increased 45 mph in just 24 hours, representing a leap from Category 1 to Category 4 — and the storm wasn’t done intensifying.

hurricane michael florida
This NOAA/RAMMB satellite image taken on Wednesday afternoon shows Hurricane Michael as it approaches the U.S. Gulf Coast. Image submitted by Lizabeth Menzies/NOAA/RAMMB/AFP

Pressure would ultimately fall to 919 millibars, one of the lowest measures of any hurricane at landfall in the United States — and the winds responded by increasing to 155 mph right as the storm struck the coast. This was a borderline Category 5 storm, and it’s clear that the only reason Michael didn’t quite cross that threshold was because it was crossing beaches by that time instead.

Process of rapid intensification

This process of “rapid intensification” — extremely dangerous near a coastline — is something we keep seeing lately. Technically, it is defined by the National Hurricane Center as an increase in wind speeds of 35 mph or more in 24 hours.

All of the worst hurricanes of the past two years — Harvey, Irma, Maria, Florence and Michael — intensified even more rapidly than this. Maria increased a stunning 80 mph in wind speeds, leaping from a Category 1 to a Category 5 storm in 24 hours, not long before its catastrophic landfall in Puerto Rico that ultimately led to thousands of deaths. Harvey and Michael didn’t strengthen quite so much, so fast, but they rapidly intensified in the crucial hours before making their final continental U.S. landfalls.

Why hurricanes explode rapidly in strength, Here why hurricanes are rapidly exploding in strength
Here’s why hurricanes explode rapidly in strength? via WP

Rapid intensification means that a storm has found itself in an ideal environment — one usually characterized by warm waters and little adverse wind shear. Michael accomplished its feat while crossing waters in the Gulf of Mexico that ranged from 1 to 2 degrees Celsius (1.8 to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than normal. That represents an enormous reservoir of extra potential hurricane energy, beyond what the warm Gulf already provides this time of year.

In fact, according to hurricane expert Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Michael could have become even stronger if not for some adverse wind shear, potentially reaching full Category 5 strength. That’s what happened in a model of the storm that Emanuel ran in real time. “With no shear, Michael would have intensified substantially faster,” he said.

It’s like the end of the world’: Hurricane Michael leaves Mexico Beach, Florida, in ruins:

Climate scientists have begun to focus on hurricane rapid intensification as an increasingly prevalent feature in the world we’re entering. Simply put, with warmer seas, storms ought to be able to pull this off more often.

In a recent study in the Journal of Climate, researchers found more rapid intensifications in a simulation of a human-warmed world, and also that this would prove a key pathway toward more intense hurricanes in general.

The rapid intensification of these storms, which was part of what made them so dangerous and devastating, is something models are telling us global warming should make more common globally over the present century,” said Gabriel Vecchi, one of the authors of the study and a climate scientist at Princeton University. ″However, I don’t think I’m in a position to say — one way or the other — whether global warming played an important role in Michael’s rapid intensification,” he cautioned.

Our present thoughts and efforts need to be with the people affected by Michael. Then on how to prepare coastal regions against furiously intensifying hurricanes. Be prepared and get ready for the next extreme weather event.

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Washington Post – Here’s why hurricanes are rapidly exploding in strength

4 Comments

  1. YEP YEP YEP…been said already, but not enough people get it yet…
    I~O~N~O~S~P~H~E~R~I~C
    H~E~A~T~E~R~S
    Weather Warfare and NO..Not country against country….
    ALL COUNTRIES
    VS
    ALL OF THEIR CITIZENS
    THEY ARE STEERING our Jet Stream…between extreme NW Alaska and NE Russia for the US and Canada & From the NE US and Canada for UK and Western Europe…ALWAYS in the middle of the ocean….This is how they CONTROL our Jet Stream, ALL Moisture, and control the weather patterns coming into the US and Canada, UK and West Europe…Thing is, and most people just CANNOT wrap their minds around this…This is NOT, I repeat NOT just a United States war on weather…This kind of operation would HAVE to have multiple countries and multiple airlines in on it…And this is where I am going to go a little on the EDGE with this…I think, there is LITTLE TO NO CHANCE that humans could figure out EXACTLY what chemicals would be needed, what airlines and flight paths would be needed, when, and where to go…I think HUMANS could NEVER be able to come together to PULL off an operation like this…In my mind, this is ALL BEING DONE….
    By Artificial Intelligence….They have let LOOSE this A.I. and are allowing it too make these decisions based upon a SET Algorithm they created and input into the AI….Now let that sink in for a few minutes and tell me we are not ALREADY at WAR with A.I. ~!~!~! Think about what I am saying, give it some time too marinate, and consider what is coming right at us in light of this…Think FOOD PRODUCTION…Think SOLAR and WIND POWER…Think about everything needed too pull something THIS LARGE off and get it RIGHT every single time…On the magnitude of actually STEERING the Jet Streams where they wanted it to go and be….
    You need too think OUTSIDE the main stream narrative that the United States and Russian and North Korea and China and Europe are at ODDS with one another….THINK BIGGER THAN THAT…Everything we have been taught…EVERYTHING we have been told and shown is a GIGANTIC LIE….They are ALL BOSOM buddies behind closed doors….MONEY + POWER + COMPARTMENTALIZATION = CORRUPTION at ALL LEVELS…Period….

  2. Heating the atmosphere in cold places when the temperature of the sea is cold. Induced HAARP hurricane in Spain France Germany England …. and nobody say nothing … Only say something of Spain and France. Here there is a cat locked

  3. Ummmmmmm the elites are using HAARP and directed energy weapons and even steam injection to strengthen the hurricanes while they are forming in Afraka. Also it’s karma for the evil whites have done to everyone and that they continue to do as a whole. Nobody gets a karma pass. It comes back on your people and exterminates you instead of you exterminating the other races.

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