Climate change is destroying a barrier that protects the U.S. East Coast from hurricanes

By Nicole Deroberts, Earth Institute, Columbia University

Image: NOAA

A new study finds that as air circulation patterns change with the climate, states on the U.S. East Coast could get hit with stronger hurricanes.

There are two main factors that contribute to hurricane development and intensity: sea surface temperature and vertical wind shear. Vertical wind shear is the difference in wind speed or direction between the upper and lower troposphere. Warmer sea surface temperatures and low wind shear (meaning the wind speeds and directions are similar throughout the column of air) both raise the potential intensity of a hurricane. Scientists knew that ocean temperatures are heating up, but until now it has not been clear how climate change would impact wind shear.

More at Phys.org