The continued warming of the world's climate is causing highly destructive storms to occur at a higher rate, especially in the Asian region where the strength of super typhoons has significantly increased over the past four decades.
In a study featured in the journal Nature Geoscience, Professor Wei Mei and his colleagues at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill examined weather data from centers in Hawaii and Japan in order to find out how the increase in ocean temperatures have impacted the development of storms over the Pacific.
The researchers discovered that the typhoons that had formed in the Pacific's northwest region had intensified by an average of 12 to 15 percent since 1977. The number of category 4 and category 5 storms in some areas of the ocean doubled and even tripled throughout the same period, with the storms that made landfall being marked as the ones that intensified the most.
While the intensity of a typhoon is determined based on the maximum wind speed it is able to sustain, the extent of damage it can cause, such as those brought on by high winds, storm surges and a high amount of rainfall, is known to increase disproportionately.
This means that if the intensity of a typhoon increases by about 15 percent, its destructive power could also increase by as much as 50 percent.
According to the researchers, most of the typhoons that they examined grew in intensity as a result of increased water temperatures along the coast. This allowed the storms to build up more energy and increase their wind speed significantly before they hit land.
Typhoon Intensification
It is still unclear whether the intensification of typhoons in the Pacific was caused by natural cycles or man-made climate change since 40 years isn't enough time for such a dramatic shift to occur.
However, Mei and his colleagues believe that global warming will likely increase ocean temperatures in the Pacific even further, based on forecasts by the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. This means that stronger typhoons could form more frequently in the future.
"We want to give the message that typhoon intensity has increased and will increase in the future because of the warming climate," Mei said.
He pointed out that the public needs to prepare for such powerful storms and to initiate action in order to cut carbon emissions to mitigate the impact of global warming.
Mei added that understanding the change in typhoon intensity is crucial for disaster preparation.
In December 2015, delegates from different nations signed the Paris climate change accord, which aims to reduce global carbon emissions to prevent the world's average temperature from increasing by 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
China announced on Saturday, Sept. 3, that it has ratified the climate agreement, allowing it to join 23 other nations that have already officially adopted the deal.
