Scientists may finally be able to prove that hurricanes are getting stronger.

[MoonRiver]

Yes, what most of us intuitively knew to be the case, has not been scientifically verified, until now.

For more than a decade, the question of how global warming is affecting the scariest storms on the planet—hurricanes—has been shot through with uncertainty. The chief reason is technological: In many parts of the world, storm strengths are estimated solely based on satellite images. Technologies and techniques for doing this have improved over time, meaning that there is always a problem with claiming that today's storms are stronger than yesterday's. After all, they might just be better observed.

That's why, despite expectations that global warming will make hurricanes stronger—as well as massive societal consequences if more powerful storms are slamming coastlines—scientific authorities like the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have demurred on the hurricane/climate question. Most recently, the IPCC earlier this year said it had "low confidence" that global warming is worsening hurricanes.

Hurricane Wilma, 2005
Hurricane Wilma of 2005, which set the Atlantic Basin record for the lowest pressure recorded in a hurricane at 882 millibars NOAA/Wikimedia Commons
But just maybe, a new scientific paper has managed to get past this long-standing data problem. The study, just out in the Journal of Climate from hurricane and satellite expert Jim Kossin of the National Climatic Data Center and his colleagues, seeks to create a completely consistent database of hurricane satellite images that will finally allow for apples-to-apples comparisons. How? "We can't take bad data and make it good, because that's adding information that we don't have," explains Kossin. "But we can take the good information and make it worse."

http://www.motherjones.com/blue-marble/2013/12/signal-increasing-hurricane-intensity-finally-emerging-noise

[RC]

1. Warmer globe, equals more energy for storms.

Not to derail the thread, but shouldn't the disappearing polar ice caps, glaciers and rising ocean levels, along with rising CO₂ levels, instep with the disappearing ice, be enough of a clue that something is happening?

[MoonRiver]

2. I agree with you,

but apparently the scientific community has not, until now, seen enough evidence to determine that global warming is affecting hurricanes. Global warming itself is a proven scientific fact.

[Baitball Blogger]

3. Our world is also spinning faster than it has before.

Maybe it's giving the currents more torque.

[WowSeriously]

6. Really? Still feels like a 24-hour day to me.

[greytdemocrat]

4. Sorry

That article is full of holes, even admitted ones. I'm surprised it was published.

I live in a hurricane prone area and this is just junk.

[eggplant]

7. And their use of chartjunk doesn't help either.

A line graph? Ignoring storms below Cat 1?

How about showing all of the named storms with an origin at zero, hmm? And maybe cluing us in on how *many* there were in a given year?

Fearmongering.

[SansACause]

5. Huh?

This sentence doesn't instill much confidence in their findings:

"We can't take bad data and make it good, because that's adding information that we don't have," explains Kossin. "But we can take the good information and make it worse."

Without RTFA, how can you extract more accurate information from a data set by removing information from current measurements so that they are as inaccurate as your old measurements?

[WowSeriously]

8. What piece of evidence will convince someone who denies evidence?

And we have already carefully cultivated the new phrase to continue in our ignorance:

It's the new normal!

[DesMoinesDem]

9. The study found no statistically significant trend, so your claim that this study

verified what you intuitively knew (LOL) is false.

[CFLDem]

10. Awesome

Glad I renewed my insurance!

Needs to make up for last year's lame-o season. Not hoping for death and destruction, just a little harmless something to make my insurance payment seem worthwhile.