"Melissa rapidly intensified into a Category 4 hurricane over the weekend, with its maximum sustained winds increasing from 70 mph to 140 mph in 18 hours before further strengthening into a Category 5 storm, with wind speeds of up to 185 mph, according to a Tuesday update. Between the lines: "During Melissa's rapid intensification the storm drifted slowly over exceptionally warm ocean waters that were 1.4°C (2.5°F) warmer than average - these conditions were made up to 700 times more likely because of human-caused climate change," per analysis from research group Climate Central."
""These unusually warm ocean temperatures, combined with overall tropical climate warming, are projected to have strengthened Melissa's top wind speed by about 10 mph, and increased its potential damages by up to 50%.""
Melissa rapidly intensified from a storm with 70 mph winds to a Category 5 hurricane with peak winds up to 185 mph. The storm killed three people in Haiti and one person in the Dominican Republic. Jamaica faces likely hurricane-force winds, heavy rainfall and flooding as the strongest storm to make landfall there in 174 years. Ocean waters were about 1.4°C warmer than average during Melissa's rapid intensification, conditions that analysis found were made far more likely by human-caused climate change. Those warmer waters and overall tropical warming likely increased Melissa's top wind speed by roughly 10 mph and raised potential damages by up to 50%.
Read at Axios
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]