As the planet warms, 'we're going to see more hurricanes like Irma'
Before the fury of Hurricane Ima reached Tampa, Fla., mayor Bob Buckhorn warned residents to get ready as the city was about to become 'ground zero.'
We are about to get punched in the face by this storm. We need to be prepared.
—@BobBuckhorn"We have for 90 years avoided this day. But I think our day has come," he said, at a press conference on Sunday, pointing to the fact that the city has managed to avoid a major hurricane for nearly a century.
After Hurricane Irma battered Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and the northern coast of Cuba, it pummelled through Florida with 200 km/h winds. Starting off with the heft of a Category 4 storm, Irma has now been downgraded to a tropical storm as it heads northwest.
The destruction from Irma's ripping winds has resulted in surging seas, flooded streets and has millions or residents in Florida without power. The full extent of Irma's wrath remains unclear.
Hugh Willoughby has been watching Hurricane Irma's approach through two lenses — as someone who lives in Miami and as a hurricane expert.
"The fact that it's turned into sort of a generic 21st century hurricane landfall — I know it doesn't sound good given the stories we've been hearing — but it could have been a lot worse," the former head of the hurricane research division for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration tells The Current's Anna Maria Tremonti.
Related: Hurricane Irma weakens to tropical storm, but still hammering Florida
"We could have had thousands of people killed. And there's going to be a lot of devastation but it was conceivable that the whole west coast of Florida would have been essentially a wasteland and that didn't happen — and not not getting the worst news is actually good news."
As Willoughby sits in the dark with his cellphone in his bedroom, with no power or access to news reports, he says the worst part now is dealing with the mess.
The theoretical argument, he explains, is as oceans get warmer and the planet warms, "we're going to see more hurricanes like Irma, and frankly like Sandy and Matthew when they were at their most ferocious."
"The party line from my colleagues is that we need to fear these huge wind storms that just flatten everything."
Based on history, Willoughby points out this is what we should expect on a warmer globe.
"Storms that were horrendous in the Caribbean, and then as they come towards us, are much weaker but bigger and rainier, and that maybe we shouldn't be fearing the wind so much as moving water," he tells Tremonti.
Statistically, Willoughby says, it's difficult to say all hurricanes have gotten worse because of a warmer planet.
"But we do know because we have a lot more measurement that in the U.S. when it rains in the summertime ... it rains harder and there are longer dry spells between wet spells," he explains.
Listen to the full segment near the top of this web post.
This segment was produced by The Current's Karin Marley.