Judith Curry
Judith Curry
Judith A. Curry is an American climatologist and former chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology. Her research interests include hurricanes, remote sensing, atmospheric modeling, polar climates, air-sea interactions, and the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for atmospheric research. She is a member of the National Research Council's Climate Research Committee...
causing debate firm global hurricane increase issue key link sea surface warming whether
With this new paper, we firm up the link between the increase in sea surface temperatures and hurricane intensity, which has been a key issue in the debate about whether global warming is causing an increase in hurricane intensity.
intensity link rising sea shores study
This study really shores up the link between rising sea temperature and the intensity of hurricanes.
global hurricane link piece sea surface warming
This firms up the link between sea surface temperatures and hurricane intensity. It is an important piece of the global warming debate.
buy conclusion humans hurricane increases increasing link rising sea surface
If humans are increasing sea surface temperatures and if you buy this link between increases rising sea surface temperatures and increases in hurricane intensity, that's the conclusion you come to.
nails study
This new study really nails down that link.
category decade larger last number share storms total
Category 4 and 5 storms are also making up a larger share of the total number of hurricanes. Category 4 and 5 hurricanes made up about 20% of all hurricanes in the 1970s, but over the last decade they accounted for about 35% of these storms.
basis found longer sea storm surface tend variables
Sea surface temperature is the one that consistently comes up. What we found is that all the variables have an effect, but those tend to be on a storm-by- storm basis and not over a longer period.
confidence
With some confidence, we can say these two things must be connected.
confidence greenhouse
With some confidence, we can say that these two things are connected, and that there's probably a substantial contribution from greenhouse warming.
confidence connected greenhouse hurricane intensity rising sea sort surface trend
This trend in sea surface temperature that's sort of relentlessly rising and the hurricane intensity that's relentlessly rising (means that) it's with some confidence we can say that these two things are connected and that there's probably a substantial contribution from greenhouse warming.
caught debate expecting global initial last published question research warming
We were not expecting to get caught up in the global warming debate when we published our initial research last September. But the whole question of global warming is something that has to be confronted.
data errors hard imagine imperfect might
Even with imperfect data and some uncertainty, it's hard to imagine what kind of errors might be in the data set to give you a long-term trend.
difference huge ocean seem small
That may seem like a small number, but it makes a huge difference in ocean temperature and it has many consequences.
found given global trend wind
We found no long-term trend in things like wind shear. There's a lot of year-to-year variability, but there's no global trend. In any given year, it's different for each ocean.