Climate change makes hurricanes more dangerous

Jamaican Environment During Tropical Tropical Storms: Emergency Services and Closed Airports during Beryl’s Passage to the West Coast of the Caribbean Sea

According to the National Hurricane Center, Beryl is forecast to move rapidly across the central Caribbean Sea and pass over Jamaica later today.

All of Jamaica’s airports are closed on Wednesday, and officials say that the island’s electricity and water services will probably be shut off as a precautionary measure.

Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness has declared a “major disaster area” and implemented an island-wide curfew from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. local time, based on what he called the “strength, path and potential threat” posed by Beryl.

Holness said in the video that this was to ensure the safety of everyone during the passage of the storm and prevent any movement with intent to carry out criminal activity.

It says tropical storm conditions are expected along the south coast of Hispaniola on Wednesday, and possible along the coast of Belize by Thursday or early Friday.

Officials said about 98% of buildings on the islands — which are home to some 6,000 people — had been damaged or destroyed, including Carriacou’s main health facility, according to the New York Times. Three storm-related fatalities have been confirmed there so far, per the AP.

“The possibility that there may be more fatalities remains a grim reality as movement is still highly restricted,” Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said at a news conference on Tuesday.

In northern Venezuela, two deaths have been reported and another five are missing, with a total of 25,000 people affected by the storm.

Biden’s World Central Kitchen and a Hurricane in the Central Gulf of the Gulf: The Climate Crisis Is Not a Tomorrow Problem

President Biden said at a Tuesday news conference that the people in impacted islands and communities are in his prayers and that he will provide assistance to them.

The World Central Kitchen announced on Tuesday that they are working to distribute food to people in need in Antigua, Grenada and St.Vincent and the Grenadines.

Residents and visitors in coastal areas should have a plan in case of bad weather, especially over the weekend, according to the Texas Division of Emergency Management.

I am not expecting a Hurricane to form in the Gulf and move into the central Texas coast, because I believe we will see enhanced rain chances Saturday and especially Sunday.

“While our carbon emissions are miniscule, our region bears the brunt of the impacts of climate change,” he added. “This hurricane further highlights the urgent need for global climate action and targeted support to enhance resilience against the escalating dangers of climate change.”

Echoing those remarks, Jamaican Senator Delroy Williams told CNN that the international community must do more to widen coastal cities’ access to climate change-related funding and improve infrastructure in low-lying areas.

Beryl made that conversation extra personal for Simon Stiell, the executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and a native of Carriacou.

His late grandmother’s home was destroyed, and his parents’ property was damaged, his office told AFP. He thinks climate change is not a tomorrow problem.

Every economy is experiencing this right now. Climate crisis is the leading cause of disasters on a scale that used to be the stuff of science fiction.

“With a warming climate, we should be expecting more of these storms to rapidly intensify,” says Jennifer Collins, a professor in the School of Geosciences at the University of South Florida. It is not clear whether a storm will gain strength more quickly as the Earth warms up or if that is already happening. The relationship between a hotter planet and the number and timing of storms that rapidly gain strength is still an active area of research.

The system grew from a weak tropical depression to a major hurricane in 48 hours.

The water temperature in the tropics is off the charts. It’s been in record-breaking territory for over a year, which means there’s a lot of extra heat available to fuel storms.

“In terms of the science, it’s unfortunately kind of right in line with what we expect when we’re warming the planet and we’re warming our oceans, especially,” Garner says.

Climate change could be changing the patterns because the ocean has absorbed excess heat from human greenhouse gas emissions.

Tom Knutson, a senior scientist at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, says scientists don’t have a clear picture yet of the relationship between human-caused warming and rapid intensification. It’s not clear if there is one that’s emerging.