We saw this interesting article first posted at 07:36:00 09/03/2008 at Inquirer.net (http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/world/view/20080903-158383/Global-warming-fuels-hurricanes-say-scientists):
GLOBAL WARMING FUELS HURRICANES SAY SCIENTISTS
WASHINGTON—Global warming has probably made Hurricane Gustav a bit stronger and wetter, some top scientists said, but the specific connection between climate change and stronger hurricanes remains an issue of debate.
The Atlantic is seeing an increase in storms rated among the strongest. In the past four years, Hurricanes Gustav and Katrina, and six other storms have reached Category 4 or higher with sustained winds of at least 211 kilometers (131 miles) per hour, according to research at Georgia Tech.
Six scientists contacted by The Associated Press on Sunday said this would show some effect of global warming, but they differed on the size of the effect.
“We are just seeing a lot more Categories 4 and 5 globally than we have ever seen,” said Judith Curry, chair of Earth and atmospheric sciences at Georgia Tech. “The years 2004, 2005 and 2007 are quite high. We’re just seeing more and more.”
Measurements of the energy pumped into the air from the warm waters—essentially fuel for hurricanes—has increased dramatically since the mid-1990s, mostly in the strongest of hurricanes, according to a soon-to-be published paper in the journal Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems by Kevin Trenberth, climate analysis chief at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado.
But the same scientists also cautioned it was impossible to blame global warming for any single weather event and that some form of Gustav (and other hurricanes) would have likely still formed and turned deadly without man-made climate change.
Yet the fingerprint of global warming on the strongest storms is becoming clearer with new research, according to the scientists. And that includes Gustav, which reached Category 4 status on Saturday before weakening.
Associated Press
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
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