Climate Changed
People—and Cities—Are Making Hurricanes Worse
Global warming packs storms with more rain, and cities themselves can make storms worse, research shows.
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Human activity is making hurricanes worse, according to a pair of studies published on Wednesday in the journal Nature.
Climate change increased rainfall from 5 percent to 10 percent in hurricanes Katrina (2005), Irma (2017) and Maria (2017), wrote two researchers at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The other study, by scientists from Princeton University and the University of Iowa, finds that Houston’s urban footprint increased the odds of extreme flooding seen during Hurricane Harvey (2017) by about 21 times.