Angela Poe Russell: Hurricane Helene latest warning how climate change is affecting weather, storms

It’s human nature to think that whatever is happening now must be the worst ever. I had that thought this week when talking to my mom about hurricanes.

She has lived in Florida for 55 years while I lived in the area for nearly three decades, so we’ve gone through a few hurricanes in our lives. As a reporter, I have worked and covered some of them as well.

During our conversation, we spoke in disbelief at the devastation of Hurricane Helene, our fears about Milton and how we just can’t remember it ever being this bad.

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It made me wonder, what does science tell us about my mom’s hunch? For answers, I turned to Tom Knutson, Senior Scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

“The numbers of hurricanes making U.S. landfall, whether it’s major hurricanes or total hurricanes, is actually relatively stable over time since 1900,” Knutson said.

However, what is different is that the hurricanes we do have are more devastating, with science pointing to global warming as the culprit. To be more specific, sea levels are rising, so hurricanes are riding in on sea levels six to eight inches higher than they were a century ago.

Another factor causing more intense hurricanes? More rainfall due to warmer water.

“Our models, when we simulate hurricanes in a warmer climate, have higher rainfall rates,” Knutson said. “There’s more rainfall because, in a warmer atmosphere, the atmosphere is holding more water vapor systematically. So these hurricanes, which are converging air in toward the center and sort of wringing it out in these thunderstorms, that air that’s coming in is holding more water vapor in this warmer climate on average than in the pre-industrial situation.”

This means stronger hurricanes that give residents a bigger storm surge and more flooding.

Folks, we need to wake up. Read the tea leaves, if you will. This is not good for any of us — especially lower-income people who are most impacted because they may not be able to afford to live in places that shield themselves from these weather changes.

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Also, the impact of climate change goes way beyond storms and reaches into the food supply, health and access to water.

There are simple things we can do at home to make a difference and our actions can also include letting our elected officials know this matters to us.

Look, I’ve never been too granola or an environmental activist, but I think, for our own sakes, we might all need to be.

Angela Poe Russell is a Seattle-based media personality and a fill-in host on KIRO Newsradio. You can read more of her commentaries and stories here.