Tropical storms are moving slowly and that is bad news for all of us

According to a recent study published in the journal Nature, those tend to move more slowly than usual. The consequences of slow moving storms are heavy rains and persistent gusts of wind.

Study author James Kossin said that most storms often hit the land and dissipated after damaging the destructive wind and heavy rains. However, there is one factor that makes the storms more dangerous, which is the speed of movement.

According to the Technology page, the speed of movement of the storm can have a certain effect on the rainfall and wind speed on the way they pass. In addition, this relationship becomes more pronounced with the resonance of climate change and global warming.

Kossin, a researcher at the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), said: " If the global temperature increases by 1 degree Celsius, it could cause a 10% reduction in storm movement speed and a doubling of the amount of rain".

The study compared data on storm intensity in the period from 1949-2016. Through the data set, NOAA can determine changes in storm speed. The results were unexpected, the speed of the storms was decreasing by an average of 10% during nearly 70 years.

A good example of the impact of slow moving storms is Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Instead of going straight to the mainland and weakening, Hurricane Harvey slows down and lurks around the mainland edge. east of Texas.

The consequence of slowing down storms and not rushing to land leads to heavy rains and strong winds due to continuous sea energy (moisture) for the storm. At that time, the city of Houston and its surrounding areas were almost engulfed in torrential rains and widespread flooding.

Movement speed recorded the strongest decline, up to 20% for storms formed in the Pacific Northwest Sea and Southeast Asia.

Even when isolating analyzes of land-based storm speeds, where the effects of wind and rain are the largest, Kossin realizes, their speed is even slower. Specifically, the speed of land movement of the North Atlantic storms has been slow to 20% and the Pacific Northwest even up to 30%.

Climate change and money consequences when storms no longer follow the laws of nature

Kossin said that the speed of decline in storms has a great relationship with climate change. The storms (tropical cyclones) form on warm seas. They accumulate energy from steam rising from the ocean surface. Characteristics of a vortex are low pressure in the center, strong wind and spiral cloudy structure containing a large amount of moisture.

They move from the sea to the mainland not in a certain trajectory. When moving into the mainland, storms often weaken very quickly because they are separated from the energy source. That is why coastal areas are always the place to suffer strong winds and heavy rain whenever storms land. Even going deep into the mainland, the circulation after the storm can cause local rain and flooding.

But if the Earth's atmosphere gradually warms up, it can hinder high winds approaching the land. In addition, a hot, humid, atmospheric atmosphere will also increase the actual rainfall of a storm.

The study by the US scientist has partly added evidence of the impact of climate change on tropical storm "behavior."

In 2014, Kossin found that the storms were gradually reaching their maximum intensity in tropical areas, while gradually increasing the level of influence. These changes could bring storms to densely populated coastal areas that had never been directly affected by storms. This could be a major danger for communities without experience in storm control.

Another study by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research uses modeling to see how storms will work in the future.

They used the storm data collected from 2000-2013 to predict the behavior of storms, The results show that storms tend to slow down by 9%, wind speed and rainfall are higher. 24%.

Given the current global warming and complex climate change phenomenon, perhaps super-large storms and extreme weather will continue in the future. If communities live in "stormy areas" in Southeast Asia, North America will not soon find ways to counter or mitigate the effects of climate change, they will be the ones who suffer the consequences. most serious.