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Climate change is driving up more than just Earth's temperature. It's making hurricanes more intense, too, which should make us revisit how we categorize these destructive storms to better warn people at risk in the future, researchers reported in a new study. The researchers recommend adding a Category 6 to the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, which currently ranks powerful tropical storms based on wind speed starting at Category 1 (74 to 95 mph) up to Category 5 (157 mph or higher). The "or higher" for Category 5 storms is where scientists take issue.

As you sit there mulling a retirement in the South, approximately 1,000 people are already on their way to Florida today with all their household belongings. Should you join them?Like many baby boomers approaching retirement age and hunting for a warmer climate to call home in their golden years, my wife and I scouted cities and towns in Florida for a possible landing pad — so I had some skin in the game (we decided on elsewhere).But Florida isn’t all about the beaches, Disney World and the massive retirement community known as The Villages. I interviewed experts and residents for...

Atlantic hurricanes are over twice as likely to quickly intensify into major storms in the past two decades compared to a comparable period in the late 20th century, according to research published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports. Author Andra Garner of New Jersey’s Rowan University analyzed more than 800 tropical cyclones originating in the Atlantic since 1971. She found that this century, storms grew from Category 1 minor storms to major hurricanes—those with winds of at least 111 miles per hour — within 24 hours 8.1 percent of the tine. Comparatively, storms only intensified that quickly 3.2 percent of...

GOP presidential candidate and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis hammered climate change alarmists in no uncertain terms during Hurricane Idalia's aftermath. DeSantis cited an 1896 storm that reportedly had 125 mph winds and Florida's Labor Day hurricane in 1935, saying during a Sunday press conference that those storms resulted in massive destruction and deaths. "So, I think the notion that somehow hurricanes are something new, that’s just false. And we’ve got to stop politicizing the weather and stop politicizing natural disasters," DeSantis said. "We know from history there’s been times when it’s very busy in Florida, late ‘40s, early ‘50s, you...

Imagine this disturbing scenario for a moment. You live in Florida and received plenty of dire warnings about the approach of Hurricane Idalia. But your house is a little way uphill and the storm surge wasn’t quite as bad as some had predicted. You manage to get by with only some minor flooding at your place and once they get the power back on you should be able to start cleaning up. But two days after the storm, you walk outside only to find your car going up in a massive fireball. Just what you needed, right? But what went...

An almost tropical depression has developed in the Gulf of Mexico. NHC Public AdvisoriesNHC Discussions

California has been hit by a 5.1 magnitude earthquake as Hurricane Hilary hits LA and San Diego with 80mph winds. The quake centered in Ventura County was felt across parts of Southern California on Sunday afternoon. The center is reported to have been four miles southeast of Ojai, about 80 miles northwest of Los Angeles. Shaking was reported in Malibu, Porter Ranch, parts of Los Angeles, Manhattan Beach and other locations. A tornado warning has also been issued for San Diego and the surrounding Alpine and Descanso areas. The National Weather Service released the warning at t 3:39 p.m. on...

With the approach of the [date removed to avoid confusion] hurricane season and the strong potential for El Niño to develop during the next few months, the effect that El Niño has on both the Atlantic and Pacific hurricanes seasons is worth exploring. The hurricane impacts of El Niño and its counterpart La Niña are like a see-saw between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, strengthening hurricane activity in one region while weakening it in the other. Simply put, El Niño favors stronger hurricane activity in the central and eastern Pacific basins, and suppresses it in the Atlantic basin (Figure 1)....

Another insurer is leaving Florida, where homeowners are paying more than ever for insurance, despite the state’s attempt to shore up the wobbling market. Tuesday, Farmers Insurance informed the state it was dropping home, auto and umbrella policies across Florida, potentially affecting tens of thousands of people. It’s the fourth company to leave the Florida market in the last year — most citing rising risks from hurricanes. Farmers, a large company with a national presence, also has reduced new business in California, citing extreme weather and wild fire threats. “This business decision was necessary to effectively manage risk exposure,” the...

Recent predictions have turned out wrong. NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center said 2022 would be a whopper, "predicting above-average hurricane activity [this] year – which would make it the seventh consecutive above-average hurricane season." It wasn’t. In fact, in terms of combined frequency, intensity, and duration, 2022 represented a noteworthy "low mark" in the past 42 years of all hurricane occurrences on the planet. Talk of seven "above-average" seasons was the real whopper. The eleven years from 2006-2017 show an unprecedented period in which no major hurricane made continental landfall, and yet the "average" data set was selected to comprise these...

Erosion along Daytona Beach, Florida, caused mainly by two hurricanes last fall, exposed a shipwreck last week that archeologists hope to learn more about, according to reports. FOX 35 in Orlando reported that researchers planned to examine the wreckage Monday, though it is not clear whether inclement weather deterred those plans. The wreck was exposed near Daytona Beach Shores because of beach erosion allegedly caused by hurricanes Ian and Nicole in 2022 and high tides. Aerial footage captured by the station’s SkyFox drone depicts wreckage in the shape of a hull, estimated to be 25 to 30 feet long. FOX...

Since 1946, despite floods, cyclones and remote terrain, the birds have carried vital intelligence round Odisha state. Now the authorities want to clip their wings … With social media and smartphones offering instant communications, the postcard and the telegram are virtually obsolete. But in India’s eastern state of Odisha, police are working hard to preserve an even older practice – carrier pigeons. Used to carry messages between stations in remote regions and keep in touch with police units on the move, the police pigeons of Odisha also proved to be the only dependable method of communication during devastating floods in...

DAYTONA BEACH SHORES, Fla. — Severe beach erosion from two late-season hurricanes has helped uncover what appears to be a wooden ship dating from the 1800s which had been buried under the sand on Florida’s East Coast for up to two centuries, impervious to cars that drove daily on the beach or sand castles built by generations of tourists. Beachgoers and lifeguards discovered the wooden structure, between 80 feet to 100 feet, poking out of the sand over Thanksgiving weekend in front of homes that collapsed into rubble on Daytona Beach Shores last month from Hurricane Nicole. “Whenever you find...

MIAMI (AP) — An Atlantic hurricane season with 14 named storms officially ended Wednesday, though residents of Florida and Puerto Rico will continue to deal with damage caused by Hurricanes Ian, Nicole and Fiona. The 2022 period had an unusually calm first half but made up for that with the three destructive hurricanes in the second half, ending with an average number of named storms. The season runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. This year had eight hurricanes with winds of at least 74 mph (119 kmh), and two of them intensified to major hurricanes with winds reaching at...

Miami’s Waldorf Astoria residential tower, poised to be South Florida’s tallest skyscraper, is a test case for new techniques meant to enable the more than 1,000-foot tall building to withstand hurricane-force winds and remain stable near sea level. Developers broke ground on the building’s foundation in downtown Miami in October. The 100-story tower, which resembles a series of glass cubes stacked on top of each other, will feature 205 hotel guest rooms and 360 luxury condo residences. It would be the city’s first supertall structure, and the tallest residential building south of New York City when completed around 2027, according...

The U.S. Atlantic Coast is becoming a hotbed for rapidly intensifying hurricanes, as climate change fuels wetter and more severe storm systems, a new study has found. A warmer world will likely beget hurricanes that gain strength faster and exacerbate the risk of flooding along the Atlantic Coast, according to the study, published on Monday in Geophysical Research Letters. Hurricane Ian’s recent crash-landing in Florida was among the strongest storms to arrive and is a testament to how hurricanes can suddenly turn severe, the researchers observed. The rates at which hurricanes have strengthened near the Atlantic Coast have surged since...

Common sense logic is lost on the left. Media cranks apparently never learned science or critical thinking during journalism school. Hurricane season is upon Southeastern America and that means hair-on-fire hysteria from the media and the political left. After Hurricane Ian ravaged southwest coastal Florida, we have heard nothing but hype from the corporate media, eager to connect every hurricane to catastrophic global warming, climate change, or whatever excuse they are currently using to usher in the Green New Deal and tyrannical top-down control of all aspects of our lives. Hurricanes are not new and are a staple of southern...

Hurricane Ian “rapidly transformed from a relatively weak storm into a strong one, [a] phenomenon that has become more common” due to climate change. So reported the New York Times in its daily email newsletter. It also said, “Ian embodies several of the major hurricane trends in recent years, as the world copes with the effects of climate change. It’s a strong storm -- and strong storms are becoming more common in the Atlantic Ocean, as its surface water has warmed.” The prayers of a nation go out to the people in Florida devastated by Hurricane Ian, particularly those in...

Researchers:Hurricanes are NOT increasing in frequency nor intensity, data shows.Increase in hurricane damage is due to more people living along the U.S. coastline.MAIN POINTS from a 2018 research article from the American Meteorological Society:While neither U.S. landfalling hurricane frequency nor intensity shows a significant trend since 1900, growth in coastal population and wealth have led to increasing hurricane-related damage along the U.S. coastline.[T]here is an insignificant trend in CONUS landfalling hurricanes from 1900-2017 (Fig. 2a)…[and] (Fig.2b). We therefore conclude that the large increase in observed hurricane-associated inflation-adjusted CONUS damage (Pielke et al. 2008) is primarily due to increases in exposure...

Hurricanes from 1851 to 2021 that made landfall in Continental United States (CONUS) according to National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).