HURRICANES “For a long time, we’ve understood, based on pretty simple physics, that as you warm the ocean’s surface, you’re going to get more intense hurricanes,” renowned climate scientist Dr. Michael Mann told Climate Reality last year. “Empirical studies show that there’s a roughly 10-mile-per-hour increase in sustained peak winds in Cat 5-level storms for each degree Fahrenheit of warming. And keep in mind that the global oceans have warmed more than a degree Fahrenheit,” he continued. But looking at increases in sustained wind speed alone doesn’t paint the full picture of a storm’s destructive potential. A hurricane is more than just its winds – it’s a major rainfall event accompanied by dangerous storm surge. And those things gain strength exponentially right alongside the rising winds. 3