Study links storm intensity w/ human-caused global warming

[PTPatrick]

For what its worth... and if you ask me very little...this came out today. It's basically a fluff article if you ask me, and doesnt give any information about the so called "link" other than increased ocean temps ...just says that they found one. I thought the temps were one just one component. Isnt it true that coean temps where never really the issue...I mean getting warm enough water for cans in the tropical atalantic is not a big problem, even in slow years. They are going to have to come up with something better than increased ocean temps to convice me...headline sure sounds interesting though


Study links hurricane intensity with human-caused global warming
Associated Press
Originally published September 12, 2006



WASHINGTON // Most of the increase in ocean temperature that feeds more intense hurricanes is a result of human- induced global warming, says a study that one researcher says "closes the loop" between climate change and powerful storms such as Hurricane Katrina.
A series of studies over the past year or so has shown an increase in the power of hurricanes in the Atlantic and Pacific, a strengthening that storm experts say is tied to rising ocean surface temperatures.

And most of that temperature increase can be blamed on global warming caused by human activities such as automobile and industrial pollution, scientists report in tomorrow's issue of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"The work that we've done kind of closes the loop here," said Tom Wigley of the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., a co-author of the paper.

"The important conclusion is that the observed [ocean surface temperature] increases in these hurricane breeding grounds cannot be explained by natural processes alone," said Wigley. "The best explanation for these changes has to include a large human influence."

Benjamin Santer of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, in Livermore, Calif., and Wigley and their team studied the relationship of climate and hurricanes using 22 climate models at 15 institutions around the world.

While previous studies have looked at entire oceans, this work focused on the smaller areas of the Atlantic and Pacific where tropical storms form.