Climate change made Hurricane Melissa four times more likely - scientists
Kyiv • UNN
A study by Imperial College London showed that climate change made Hurricane Melissa four times more likely. The Category 5 hurricane, which hit Jamaica, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba, caused $22 billion in damage and left dozens dead.
According to research, climate change made Hurricane Melissa four times more likely due to climate change, UNN reports with reference to Sky news.
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The Category 5 hurricane, which hit Jamaica on Tuesday, swept through the Caribbean with winds of up to 185 mph, also affecting Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Cuba, leaving dozens dead and causing widespread destruction.
In Jamaica, AccuWeather estimates that the damage and economic losses from Hurricane Melissa could amount to $22 billion, and recovery could take a decade or more.
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Researchers at Imperial College London estimated that in a world without climate change, a weaker hurricane would have been about 12% less destructive.
They said that human-caused global warming has not only increased the intensity but also the likelihood of a powerful hurricane occurring.
They also found that climate change, primarily caused by the burning of oil, gas, and coal, increased Hurricane Melissa's wind speed by 7% (11 mph).
In a colder world without climate change, a Hurricane Melissa-type event would hit Jamaica once every 8,000 years, they said.
But in today's climate, with 1.3°C warming, the probability has increased fourfold, and such an event is now expected once every 1,700 years.
According to researchers, Jamaica is now facing massive relief efforts for approximately 400,000 affected people, in a country where 70% of the population lives within 3.1 miles of the sea.
Professor Ralph Toumi, Director of the Grantham Institute at Imperial College London, said: "Anthropogenic climate change clearly made Hurricane Melissa stronger and more destructive.
These storms will become even more destructive in the future if we continue to overheat the planet by burning fossil fuels."