Climate Change Made Hurricane Melissa 4 Times More Likely, Study Suggests

"Hurricane Melissa collided with Jamaica on Tuesday, wreaking havoc across the island before tearing through nearby Haiti and Cuba. The storm, which reached Category 5, reserved for the hurricanes with the most powerful winds, has killed at least 40 people across the Caribbean so far. Now weakened to a Category 2, it continues its path toward Bermuda, where landfall is likely on Thursday night, according to the National Hurricane Center."

"Early reports of the damage are cataclysmic, particularly in hardest-hit western Jamaica. Winds reaching speeds of 185 miles per hour and torrential rain flattened entire neighborhoods, decimated large swaths of agricultural lands and forced more than 25,000 people-locals and tourists alike-to seek cover in shelters or hotel ballrooms. According to the new attribution study from Imperial College London, climate change ramped up Melissa's wind speeds by 7 percent, which increased damages by 12 percent."

"Hurricane Melissa is "kind of a textbook example of what we expect in terms of how hurricanes respond to a warming climate," said Brian Soden, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Miami, who was not involved in the recent analyses. "We know that the warming ocean temperatures [are] being driven almost exclusively by increasing greenhouse gases." The storm has disrupted every"

Hurricane Melissa intensified over unusually warm ocean waters into one of the strongest Atlantic storms on record, reaching Category 5 before weakening to Category 2. The storm struck Jamaica, Haiti, and Cuba and has killed at least 40 people while forcing more than 25,000 people into shelters. Winds up to 185 miles per hour and torrential rains flattened neighborhoods and devastated agricultural lands in western Jamaica. A rapid attribution study from Imperial College London estimates climate change increased Melissa's wind speeds by 7 percent and raised damages by 12 percent, making the cyclone four times more likely. Losses could total tens of billions of dollars as Melissa moves toward Bermuda.

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