Hurricanes: Why They Happen and How to Fight Them

2017 has had one of the most active hurricane seasons on record, and it’s only going to get worse from here. Harvey, Jose, Maria, and Irma were deadly storms that occurred in the U.S. just this past year. Among the costliest storms ever to ravage our country, these hurricanes racked up a total of $200 billion in damages so far. Hurricane Harvey, which hit Texas in late August with a wind speed of 130 MPH, was the largest category 4 hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. since 1961.

Hurricane Maria, the most recent, hit Puerto Rico in September, warranting massive relief efforts. A recent update from PBS NewsHour reports that “66% power on the island [is] restored, 93% of the island has access to water, 73% of cell sites are up and running, and 982 survivors remain in 41 shelters across the island.” In spite of this, there is still much to do with trash and debris scattered across the ground, access to food limited, and thousands of buildings in need of reconstruction. Even government efforts to help those affected may not be enough. Some U.S. citizens have taken the relief effort into their own hands, such as Jose Andres, a prominent restaurant owner in California. In the first couple months after the storm, Jose, with the help of local chefs and volunteers, has established World Central Kitchen in Puerto Rico in order to feed those affected by Hurricane Maria. What started with just $10,000 of his own money has grown into a full-fledged relief effort. The World Central Kitchen now makes an average of 100,000 meals per day in 18 kitchens across the island — much more than that of other relief organizations such as the Red Cross.

So why is this happening? Many experts think that the recent rise in hurricane activity is a result of global warming: the increase in Earth’s average global temperature. In 2017, the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory conducted a study on the effects of SST (Atlantic sea surface temperatures) and PDI (the measure of Atlantic hurricane activity. The study was conclusive regarding the direct correlation and statistical relationship between the two, reporting that “anthropogenic warming by the end of the 21st century will likely cause tropical cyclones globally to be more intense on average (by 2 to 11%).” Climate change affects hurricane activity in this manner because when the sea surface temperatures increase, there is more water vapor entering the atmosphere, which is a known instigator for storms. PBS media explains water vapor’s relationship to hurricane growth as, “Water vapor cools in the atmosphere, and it turns into ice during the process of deposition or condenses into liquid water to form clouds. This heat warms the surrounding air and can cause more water to evaporate, creating a “heat engine” that can help fuel the growth of a hurricane.” While governments focus on relief efforts, the relationship between climate change and these catastrophic hurricanes remains understated outside the scientific community. With industrial societies reliant on production, factories continue to release greenhouse gases everyday, such as methane and nitrous oxide, creating a hazard for the environment, and as explained, a hazard for our safety from natural disasters. A change needs to happen, and soon, because there might not be a cap on how big these hurricanes can get.