After Hurricane Otis hits: Tropical storms growing in intensity

After Hurricane Otis made history with an explosive intensification this week, research from the NOAA suggests tropical storms are growing stronger.

Capable of inflicting devastating damage, tropical storms are among nature's most ferocious phenomena. News that global warming is strengthening these systems is not welcome.

Tropical storms are fuelled by warm ocean water and humidity, as the world’s climate warms the fuel available to intensify these storms grows.

With oceans warming annually, the amount of water evaporating rises. This helps transfer moisture and heat into the air resulting in stronger winds and heavier rains. This is even stronger at times of an El Niño which is currently taking place in the Pacific.

It is mainly because of the water cycle. Water cycles through the environment and moves between the atmosphere, oceans, land, and reservoirs of frozen water.

Water seeps into the ground and evaporates back into the atmosphere, warming temperatures increase the upper limit of moisture in the air, which in turn raises the chance of heavier rainfall and storms.

Hurricanes are sometimes called “thermal engines,” as they convert the thermal energy of humidity into powerful winds. Therefore, when they make landfall, the systems start to weaken.

This does not prevent them from venturing inland for days at a time, and simulation data from Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology shows that hurricanes that developed over warmer waters took longer to weaken.

In 2022 the total cost of damages stemming from hurricanes during the Atlantic hurricane season totalled $165 billion according to the NOAA. If oceans continue to warm, this is likely to rise in the coming years.