Hurricane season is getting longer because of climate change ... - Louisana Illuminator

Hurricane season is getting longer because of climate change, researchers say - Louisiana Illuminator

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Hurricane season is getting longer because of climate change, researchers say

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Hurricane season, which officially runs from June 1 to Nov. 30, is getting longer because of climate change, researchers say.

“Seven of the last eight years we’ve had named storms form before hurricane season officially began on June 1. We technically had a named storm in January of 2023,” Barry Keim, Louisiana’s state climatologist and an LSU professor, said in a press release.

Keim and other researchers analyzed historic storm data and found hurricane season is starting earlier and ending later. He worked with other researchers from LSU, the University of New Hampshire, Colorado State University and the Southern Climate Impact Planning Program, a research collaborative.

Changing the official timeline of the season might allow coastal residents to be better prepared, the experts said.

“It makes sense to start thinking about hurricane season beginning before June 1 to help residents and emergency officials plan and prepare for storms,” Keim said. “We need to wrap our heads around that hurricanes are arriving earlier in the season.”

Hurricanes and tropical storms need sea surface temperatures of 80 degrees Fahrenheit or greater to form. Climate change is producing those conditions more frequently, especially in the Gulf of Mexico, which has warmed at twice the rate of the global ocean from 1970 to 2020, researchers found.

“Climate change is causing warmer sea surface temperatures for a longer period of time,” Keim said. “Warmer atmosphere and sea surface temperatures would result in a longer season because you’re over the 80-degree threshold to support a storm, so it makes logical sense that hurricane season would expand in both directions.”

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