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
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.
Latest Answers