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Seas reveal a surge in the strength of tropical storms

A 30-year record of ocean-current velocities has been used to infer wind speeds during tropical cyclones. The data show that these storms have intensified over time, supporting claims that their strength will increase as the planet warms.
  1. Robert L. Korty

    1. Robert L. Korty is in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, USA.

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Tropical cyclones, such as hurricanes and typhoons, are predicted to intensify with the temperature increases expected under current projections for global warming1. However, it is unclear whether historical records already show signs of this trend, because these storms form over areas of ocean that are often far from land, where direct measurements of surface wind speeds can be both dangerous and impractical to obtain2. Writing in Nature, Wang et al.3 report that the intensity of surface winds can be inferred from measurements of the ocean currents that build beneath them. The authors’ data show that, over the past 30 years, tropical storms have grown stronger in all ocean basins in which they occur.

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Nature 611, 451-452 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-03342-y

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Competing Interests

The author declares no competing interests.

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