TOLEDO, Ohio — As millions of people are still reeling from the devastation of Hurricane Helene, scientists are raising alarms about studies that are being done that show how history will tell us why storms are getting stronger.
But why is this topic gaining interest in the weather world?
This all started with the path of destruction Helene left behind last week, but why does this defining moment in weather history raise concern about past and future tropical cyclones? That's where a paleoclimatologist can break this down and explain why this is happening.
Sierra Petersen is an associate professor at the University of Michigan and also a member of Science Mom which studies past climate and ocean conditions, and how history can tell us why storms are getting stronger and what can be done to reverse them from happening more often.
"Over the years, the ocean surface has been warming and so that is letting hurricanes suck up even more energy and end up as stronger storms," Petersen said.
Cooling ocean waters is certainly no easy task, to say the least. It will take a significant amount of work to make this happen.
"The only way to kind of cool the oceans is to reverse this global warming, is to decrease our fossil fuel emissions, transition to renewable energies, and then ultimately remove some of the greenhouse gases we’ve already put into the atmosphere," Petersen said.
Throughout the last few years, stronger storms have continued to track more and more inland to places that haven't historically prepared for hurricanes, like Asheville, North Carolina.
"In Michigan and Ohio, we saw earlier this summer Hurricane Beryl. The remnants of Hurricane Beryl came up this far north and we had anomalously high rainfall in July," Petersen said.
So how can we be more prepared so the effects are less when Hurricanes do strike?
"Stronger hurricanes are just one symptom of global climate change, global warming," Petersen said. "So to treat the symptom, perhaps you do things like building codes and trying to make the infrastructure more resilient, but that’s not going to stop the disease."
Overall this is not something we should be used to. Petersen said we should be thinking of these stronger hurricanes as unnatural disasters, which were once a natural phenomenon but are amping up higher through global emissions.