WASHINGTON —
Hurricane Helene was a massive category 4 storm. To give an idea of the size of it, let's examine data from the National Hurricane Center comparing the wind field size between 2023’s Hurricane Idalia and 2024’s Hurricane Helene.
Both were major hurricanes, both were destructive, but Helene’s wind field was hundreds of miles larger and is proving to be significantly deadlier. This seems to be a pattern. Each year hurricane season becomes increasingly active, and storms are getting stronger. But why?
WUSA9 spoke with Dr. Petersen, an environmental science professor at the University of Michigan, who is actively researching our oceans.
“Because of human activities, the planet is warming, and with that, a lot of that heat that the planet is gaining is going into the oceans and warming, increasing ocean temperatures. And as ocean temperatures warm, hurricanes have more energy to tap into,” Dr. Petersen said.
That increase in energy is helping to fuel larger and stronger storms, according to Dr. Petersen.
“The size and strength of them [hurricanes] are changing because of things that humans are doing, specifically burning fossil fuels and emitting greenhouse gases that warm the planet. And that warmth is leading to these storms being bigger and stronger,” Dr. Petersen said.
So what’s the impact? More powerful storms means that more people will be affected. More people will have to travel farther to get out of the path of the storm. Plus, there will be financial ramifications. Post-storm cleanup will be more costly, property insurance will be more expensive, and rebuilding homes to be more resilient to future storms, as we already know, is more expensive.
Storms like Helene show us the real impact that our changing climate is having and will hopefully help continue the conversation of lowering our collective carbon footprint.