Slower-moving Hurricanes Will Cause More Devastation As World Warms
Friday, April 24th, 2020 Catastrophe PropertyHurricane Harvey caused catastrophic flooding in 2017, killing 68 people and costing $125 billion in damages.
One reason it was so destructive is that it moved unusually slowly and remained over the same area for days — and as the world warms, there are going to be a lot more slow-moving tropical cyclones like Harvey, according to high-resolution climate models.
A slow-moving tropical cyclone dumps far more rain in one place than a fast-moving storm of a similar size and strength.
The winds can also do more damage, because they batter structures for longer.
Harvey, for instance, dumped more than a metre of rain in parts of the Houston area. “Imagine that much water falling in one spot,” says Gan Zhang at Princeton University. “It is too much for the infrastructure to handle.”
Other recent storms, including Hurricane Florence in 2018 and Hurricane Dorian in 2019 have also been slow-moving, leading to suggestions that climate change is increasing the odds of slow-moving storms.
