eli5: I know that these most recent severe storms and disasters are undoubtedly a result of worsening climate change, but as a non-science person I don’t understand exactly how/why.
In: Planetary Science
[removed]
Hurricanes are largely powered by the evaporation of water from the ocean surface. Warmer average temperatures means more evaporation, which means that the hurricanes have more energy to dissipate.
The analogy I like best is that warm air is a better sponge than cool air. So, as the air warms up, it sponges up more water from the ocean. When the warm sponge hits cool air, it releases the water. As a result, things rain related become more severe because the rain sponge is bigger.
You often hear about average global temperature increasing by 1 degree celsius. That doesn’t sound like a lot, but I just read that requires the same energy as something like 250 nuclear bombs.
Hurricanes are fed by warm ocean water. When a hurricane goes over warm ocean water, it gets bigger and stronger. Among the many effects of climate change is more heat in the atmosphere and in the oceans. The result? Bigger and stronger hurricanes.
Hurricanes, typhoons and severe tropical cyclones form over warm ocean water, the warmer the air above the ocean the faster new air is sucked into the storm and the larger it grows and the faster the winds. With global warming increasing the temperature of the oceans more hurricanes are likely to develop in the future. https://youtu.be/VWCVohW5mD8
Hurricanes gain energy from the body of water they’re traveling over. As sea temps rise, each 1 degree Celsius results in an extra 5.49 x 10^23 joules of energy being stored. For reference that is the same as 1 million 1-megaton nuclear bombs or 15,000 years of the avg total US power consumption. With so much extra energy it becomes much easier for storms to get extremely powerful in a short time.
[removed]
* The actual energy of hurricanes comes from heat in ocean water. All the energy powering the winds and lifting and dropping the rain originates as heat in the ocean surface water.
* Part of climate change is the oceans are getting warmer, especially the surface water, as they absorb heat being trapped on Earth by the greenhouse effect we’re creating with our CO2 and methane emissions.
=> Warmer oceans = more heat available = stronger storms with more energy to burn off
The energy that fuels hurricanes comes from heat in the ocean. Climate change leads to warmer ocean temperatures, which means more heat energy available to fuel hurricanes.
Latest Answers