Texas Tech University

How Climate Change is Fueling Hurricanes and Wildfires

NPR

August 30, 2020

NPR - NPR's Michel Martin speaks with climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe about how climate change can make natural disasters, including Hurricane Laura and the wildfires in California, more severe.

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

Last week, Hurricane Laura made landfall in Louisiana as one of the strongest storms to hit the region in decades. To be clear, scientists say climate change doesn't cause a weather event, but it is playing a role in increasing the severity of them. To understand why, we called climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe.

KATHARINE HAYHOE: In a warmer world, hurricanes are not getting more frequent, but they are getting stronger. They're intensifying faster. They're getting bigger and slower. And they have a lot more rainfall associated with them than they would have 50 or 100 years ago.

To read the full story, click here.