*shudders in fear*
This isn't happening.
Three of the most intense storms ever *in a single season*. Only two previous seasons have had two Category 5 storms (1960 and 1961). 2005 now has three, and for good measure they're all among the ten most intense storms. Ever.
Sea temperatures in the area of Wilma were over 30C yesterday. In mid-October. That's just not meant to happen.
On that evidence, the instant gut reaction is to blame global warming. Understandable, and at least it might make a few people think about what damage we're doing to the planet (not that it should take three monster hurricanes in two months to do that) but it can't be that simple - there's numerous other factors involved in the formation of hurricanes, and evidently far too many of them have been at work this year.
Still, I'd suspect global warming is one factor, even if it's only a small one - the most likely effect of continued global warming on the hurricane season is for storms to be formed further north (and that's a scary prospect in itself because another factor in hurricane development, the Coriolis effect, is greater at more northerly altitudes). And we must not forget that there are other effects that are far more easily attributable to global warming. But hurricanes are singular deadly events and that might explain why the simple explanation of global warming is being used as an explanation for how they are becoming more numerous and powerful in recent years.
Three of the most intense storms ever *in a single season*. Only two previous seasons have had two Category 5 storms (1960 and 1961). 2005 now has three, and for good measure they're all among the ten most intense storms. Ever.
Sea temperatures in the area of Wilma were over 30C yesterday. In mid-October. That's just not meant to happen.
On that evidence, the instant gut reaction is to blame global warming. Understandable, and at least it might make a few people think about what damage we're doing to the planet (not that it should take three monster hurricanes in two months to do that) but it can't be that simple - there's numerous other factors involved in the formation of hurricanes, and evidently far too many of them have been at work this year.
Still, I'd suspect global warming is one factor, even if it's only a small one - the most likely effect of continued global warming on the hurricane season is for storms to be formed further north (and that's a scary prospect in itself because another factor in hurricane development, the Coriolis effect, is greater at more northerly altitudes). And we must not forget that there are other effects that are far more easily attributable to global warming. But hurricanes are singular deadly events and that might explain why the simple explanation of global warming is being used as an explanation for how they are becoming more numerous and powerful in recent years.