Global warming is causing hurricanes, around the world, to become stronger, say scientists

A new study has now found that hurricanes are getting stronger due to global warming. Over a period of 39 years, between 1979 and 2017, trends have shown that storms are getting stronger in general and major tropical cyclones have become more frequent.

The results of this study have been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,

Storms growing stronger on global and regional levels is consistent with what to expect with hurricanes responding to a warmer world. File image of Hurricane Dorian captured by a satellite view. Image: NOAA[/caption]As per a report in Daily Mail, researchers from the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration have found that the risk of a hurricane wind speed reaching above 115mph or category 3 had increased by 15 per cent over the last 40 years.

Study authors say that the change in intensity and speed is likely to continue increasing and become more substantial as the planet warms up further in the next few years.

Climate scientist and study author James Kossin from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) was quoted as saying that their results highlight that the storms growing stronger on global and regional levels is consistent with what to expect with hurricanes responding to a warmer world.

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According to the report, researchers have suspected for a long time that there would be an increase in stronger hurricanes as warmer ocean temperatures add moisture to the atmosphere. This, in turn, energises the storms.

Kossin said, "Every year the data are a bit different than last year, each new satellite has new tools and captures data in different ways, so in the end, we have a patchwork quilt of all the satellite data that have been woven together."

With the help of computers that help study authors interpret satellite images of storms around the world, they have been able to detect a trend towards stronger hurricanes.

Kossin, however, admitted that the results do not say precisely how much of the trends is caused by human activities and how much maybe just natural variability.