File:Hurricane Milton, 2024.jpeg: Difference between revisions

Milton .... with a 2024 Message about Rapid Tropical Cyclone Intensification

Warming Ocean Waters due to Climate Change Deliver Milton-esque Consequences

Noah Bergren, Meteorologist, Orlando, Florida:

This is nothing short of astronomical. I am at a loss for words to meteorologically describe you the storms small eye and intensity. 897mb pressure with 180 MPH max sustained winds and gusts 200+ MPH. This is now the 4th strongest hurricane ever recorded by pressure on this side of the world. The eye is TINY at nearly 3.8 miles wide. This hurricane is nearing the mathematical limit of what Earth's atmosphere over this ocean water can produce.

GreenPolicy360: Historic Hurricanes, Weather 'Disturbances' that within Hours Intensify to Highest Categories of Destructive Storm Power

Here's a bit of Earth Science. A top of the news article via the Washington Post that puts Hurricane Milton in perspective...

• https://wapo.st/4dCicbN

Hurricanes require a lengthy recipe list to materialize, but scientists agree that one ingredient has been pushing these storms to new limits recently: ocean heat. Waters in the Gulf of Mexico started to break all-time temperature highs this summer, but recent weeks have seen an extra jolt of warmth — what scientists describe as a “marine heat wave”...

“Marine heat waves are like the monsters for the future,” said Soheil Radfar, a coastal hazards researcher at the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa. “We should be prepared against this monster that is going to supercharge tropical cyclones and make them stronger.”

...scientists say, ocean heat has increased to record levels in recent decades due to human-caused climate change. The reason is simple: The oceans, which cover more than 70 percent of Earth’s surface, absorb most of the excess heat created by burning fossil fuels. Water also can absorb large amounts of heat with relatively little temperature change, making it a very efficient place to store all the trapped heat in the atmosphere.

Using computer models, an analysis from Climate Central said the record sea surface temperatures over the past two weeks were 400 to 800 times more likely as a result of climate change.

~