A group of international scientists stated on Friday that human-caused climate change made Hurricane Milton’s ferocious wind and torrential rainfall, which claimed the lives of 16 people in Florida this week, more severe.
According to a World Weather Attribution analysis, global warming increased rainfall by between 20% and 30% and increased wind speeds by 10%. The group of climate scientists investigates how climate change contributes to the occurrence of extreme weather.
In less than 24 hours, Milton grew from a Category 1 storm to a violent Category 5, feeding off Gulf of Mexico waters that were both record- and near-record-warm. As a Category 3 hurricane, it made landfall in Florida.
Past logical examinations have shown environmental change has made such temperatures in the Bay somewhere in the range of 400 and multiple times almost certain.
According to the US National Hurricane Center, Milton had maximum sustained wind speeds of 180 mph (290 kph) and was the third-fastest Atlantic hurricane ever recorded due to the additional heat.
According to the group of scientists, rainfall storms like those in Milton are now about twice as likely as they would have been without the warming caused by humans.
“This study has confirmed what ought to be obvious already: Greenpeace campaigner Ian Duff stated, “The burning of fossil fuels is to blame for climate change’s supercharged storms.”
“Rebuilding shattered homes and communities now faces astronomical costs for millions of people across Florida, many of whom lack insurance.”
Climate change, according to scientists, may be to blame for a worrying pattern of rapid hurricane intensification in the Atlantic over the past 50 years.
Forecasters anticipated a supercharged Atlantic hurricane season with four to seven major storms due to the extremely warm surface water temperatures around Florida and the Caribbean.
Milton is the second Classification 5 storm this season, which runs from June through November.
According to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, more than one Category 5 hurricane has been recorded in a season only five times since 1950.
