Hurricane Irma struck the Caribbean last night (Sept. 6), killing at least ten people and causing thousands of dollars in infrastructure damage on affected islands. It’s the strongest storm ever recorded in the Atlantic, and it comes just a week after Hurricane Harvey ravaged the southeastern US. On its tail are two newly-minted hurricanes, Jose and Katia.
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| Catastrophic destruction. |
The waning summer months in the Northern Hemisphere are peak hurricane season because the tropical ocean waters close to the equator become warmer with the summer. The warm, humid air rises, then condenses and cools and dumps rain below. Air pressure gradients between the warm and cool air keep the cycle going.
These wind patterns can lead to tropical storms, but not all tropical storms grow into hurricanes. This is because the same gusts of wind end up disturbing the top layer of warm water too much, and bring up colder waters from below. The cold water starves the system for energy, and the storm fizzles out.
Read the Quartz story by Katherine Ellen Foley - “Even Fox News is admitting that climate change helped make Irma super strong.”
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