This paper evaluates whether mangroves can mitigate the impact of hurricanes on economic activity. The paper assembles a new, regionwide panel data set that measures local economic activity using nightlights, potential hurricane damages using a detailed hurricane windstorm model, and mangrove protection by mapping the width of mangrove forests on …
This paper evaluates whether mangroves can mitigate the impact of hurricanes on economic activity. The paper assembles a new, regionwide panel data set that measures local economic activity using nightlights, potential hurricane damages using a detailed hurricane windstorm model, and mangrove protection by mapping the width of mangrove forests on …
Americans’ concerns about climate change have surged to record levels, new polling shows, following a year marked by devastating storms, wildfires and increasingly dire warnings from scientists. A total of 72% of polled Americans now say global warming is personally important to them, according to the Yale program on climate …
Insured losses from Hurricane Florence, which slammed into North Carolina this month, will range from $2.8 billion to $5 billion, said RMS, a risk modeling and analytics firm on Monday. The figures include losses caused by high winds, storm surges, inland floods and the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), RMS …
Hurricanes and typhoons are slowing down due to rising global temperatures, meaning storms have more time to wreak havoc in the areas they strike. Over the past 70 years – a period in which the planet warmed by 0.5C – the speed at which these enormous weather systems moved across …
As the Earth’s atmosphere warms, the atmospheric circulation changes. These changes vary by region and time of year, but there is evidence that anthropogenic warming causes a general weakening of summertime tropical circulation. Because tropical cyclones are carried along within their ambient environmental wind, there is a plausible a priori …
The onset of hurricane season this week could prove disastrous for Caribbean nations that were slammed by storms last year and are still struggling to rebuild in the face of funding shortfalls, said regional leaders. Countries need to focus on preparing for increasingly ferocious storms rather than just reacting to …
Rapid intensification (RI) of hurricanes is notoriously difficult to predict and can contribute to severe destruction and loss of life. While past studies examined the frequency of RI occurrence, changes in RI magnitude were not considered. Here we explore changes in RI magnitude over the 30‐year satellite period of 1986–2015. …
Hurricane Harvey made landfall in August 2017 as the first land-falling category 4 hurricane to hit the state of Texas since Hurricane Carla in September 1961. While its intensity at landfall was notable, most of the vast devastation in the Houston metropolitan area was due to Harvey stalling near the …
An analysis was made of the loss of life directly caused by Hurricane Harvey. Information was collected for 70 fatalities that occurred directly due to the event. Most of the fatalities occurred in the greater Houston area, which was most severely affected by extreme rainfall and heavy flooding. The majority …
At USD 144 billion, the insured losses from natural and man-made disasters worldwide in 2017 were the highest ever recorded in a single year. The main driver of the high insured losses was an active hurricane season in the North Atlantic. In particular, three major hurricanes -- Harvey, Irma and …
With dry seasons now becoming longer, women are working harder to feed and care for their families without support. United Nations: Women are more likely than men to be affected by climate change, UN figures revealed on Thursday. The figures indicated that 80 percent of people displaced by climate change …
Fierce hurricanes, heat waves, floods and wildfires ravaged the planet in 2017, as scientists said the role of climate change in causing or worsening certain natural disasters has grown increasingly clear. It was also the year the world's second largest polluter, the United States, turned its back on the 196-nation …
Harvey arose from a tropical wave west of West Africa on 13 August 2017 and quickly travelled westwards across the tropical Atlantic Ocean. Before entering the Caribbean Sea, Harvey was classified as a tropical storm for the first time on 17 August 2017. While crossing the Lesser Antilles and moving …
BONN, Germany: This year will be among the three hottest on record in a new sign of man-made climate change that is aggravating "extraordinary weather" such as hurricanes, droughts and floods, the United Nations said on Monday. The UN report is meant to guide almost 200 nations meeting from Nov. …
It is likely that 2017 will be one of the three hottest years on record, with many high-impact incidents, including catastrophic hurricanes and floods, debilitating heat waves and drought. Long-term indicators of climate change such as increasing carbon dioxide concentrations, sea level rise and ocean acidification have continued to manifest. …
With hurricanes, floods and other impacts of climate change becoming increasingly destructive, countries urgently need to step up their ambitions to cut emissions if they are to keep global warming within safe limits, experts said ahead of U.N. climate talks starting on Monday. About 163 countries have submitted plans on …
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. federal government should adopt a strategy to manage climate change risks, as their cost to the government may rise as much as $35 billion per year by mid-century, a congressional watchdog office report released on Monday said. The report from the non-partisan Government Accountability Office …
Nicaragua is set to join the Paris climate agreement, according to an official statement and comments from the vice-president, Rosario Murillo, on Monday, in a move that leaves the United States and Syria as the only countries outside the global pact. Nicaragua has already presented the relevant documents at the …
SAN JOSE (Reuters) - Tropical Storm Nate killed at least 22 people in Central America on Thursday as it pummelled the region with heavy rain while heading toward Mexico’s Caribbean resorts and the U.S. Gulf Coast where it could strike as a hurricane this weekend. In Nicaragua, at least 11 …
In many coastal communities, the risks driven by storm surges are motivating substantial investments in flood risk management. The design of adaptive risk management strategies, however, hinges on the ability to detect future changes in storm surge statistics. Previous studies have used observations to identify changes in past storm surge …
