From the climateREALISM
By Linnea Lueken
In a recent weather segment on CBS News in Los Angeles titled “Helene Gains Strength as Climate Change Impacts,” a staff meteorologist claims that Hurricane Helene has been strengthened by climate change and that hurricanes in general are increasing in intensity and strength. That's wrong. It's actually shocking how wrong CBS is about the actual hurricane data, namely that hurricanes aren't getting more intense, more frequent or stronger.
The CBS video's description states: “…Helene gains strength from warmer waters in the Gulf of Mexico, an effect linked to climate change that appears to make hurricanes and storms more powerful.”
The CBS host turns the segment over to meteorologist Marina Jurica, who claims that “the increasing intensity of hurricanes is largely due to physics…Hurricanes draw their energy from warm ocean water, and as climate change causes sea surface temperatures to rise, available energy increases.” These storms are increasing.”
It's true that warm sea surface temperatures contribute to the formation of hurricanes. However, they are far from the only element, and in fact, for most of this hurricane season, storms have struggled to form at all despite warmer than average sea surface temperatures.
Jurica makes the common claim that warmer water causes stronger winds and more moisture, leading to heavier precipitation: “One of the most significant impacts of climate change is its impact on the intensity of hurricanes…which is why we are seeing more catastrophic flooding associated with all hurricanes. “these recent storms.” The host went on to claim that hurricanes have been more intense in recent years and “the magnitude of storms is increasing,” and Jurica added that “storms have been slower moving in recent decades,” with Harvey being cited as Example of this effect was used. Most of these claims are complete nonsense.
Starting with the anecdote about Hurricane Harvey: When the storm hit Texas in 2017, it was the first major hurricane to make landfall in the United States since 2005, following a 12-year severe hurricane drought in one of the most active tropical storm regions in the world. The longest such major hurricane drought on record in the United States.
Jurica claims in the CBS clip that Harvey was blocked because of global warming, which caused more moisture in the air and dumped more water on Texas, and while it's true that the rainfall in the area was unprecedented, shows the reality that it was cooler than normal low that stalled the storm over Houston. Stalled storms are nothing new, as professional meteorologist and hurricane historian Joe Bastardi points out here. As a meteorologist, it was Jurica's job to look this up before appearing on live television.
No measured hurricane data supports the claim that hurricanes have become stronger. Only incorrect computer model outputs are found.
Publicly available data show no trend in the increasing frequency or intensity of tropical cyclones in the Atlantic or elsewhere in the world. Accumulated cyclone energy is a measure used to track the overall strength of tropical cyclones over time. This one from Dr. Data presented by Ryan Maue suggests that they have lost strength since the 1990s. (See image below)
Even the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) agrees, noting that there is “low confidence that detectable changes in tropical cyclone activity are due to anthropogenic influences.”
The CBS broadcast occurred before Helene made landfall, and while Hurricane Helene proved to be very destructive, this is not unprecedented. Previous hurricanes have also caused significant flooding, wind and tornado damage far inland in the Appalachian Mountains and surrounding regions, such as Hurricane Gracie in 1959, which made landfall in South Carolina as a Category 4 and killed 13 people in Virginia died as a result of tornadoes. There are many other examples, the most devastating of which was the Great Galveston Hurricane of 1900, a Category 4 storm that claimed between 6,000 and 12,000 lives, most of them due to storm surge and flooding.
Any major storm that causes loss of life and property is a tragedy and must be taken seriously. That's why it's so appalling when the mainstream media exploits people's fear of dangerous storms and their loss and misery in their wake. to make false claims about climate change. The CBS meteorologist is either woefully uninformed about hurricane data or simply doesn't care about the facts despite her training as a meteorologist.
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