Did climate change contribute to Hurricane Harvey ?
Hurricane Harvey
Climate change was not the cause of  Hurricane Harvey   but there's reason to think a warmer planet can make such storms more devastating.
" Harvey  was almost certainly more intense than it would have been in the absence of human-caused warming " said one scientist.
Climate change didn't cause  Hurricane Harvey . But scientists can say it likely made the storm worse  according to Michael Mann  a distinguished professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State.
"If you look at the ocean temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico  they're at near-record warm levels  about 87 Fahrenheit underneath  Harvey  right now  that's about 2 degrees Fahrenheit above average for this time of year. That's a lot of extra heat energy available to evaporate water vapor into the air " Jeff Masters  a meteorologist at The Weather Company who cofounded the weather-data website Weather Underground  told Business Insider on Thursday.
As  Harvey  picked up more moisture  it rapidly strengthened from a tropical storm to a category 4 hurricane before making landfall  after which it stalled as a tropical storm  dumping so much rain that the National Weather Service had to add more colors to its map.
 Harvey  has been described as a once-in-500-years-event  though some spots could hit the once-in-a-million-years benchmark. But such events seem to be becoming more common  as evidenced by major recent storms like Allison in 2001  Rita in 2005  and Ike in 2008. By some definitions  the Houston area faced 500-year floods in both 2015 and 2016.
Climate change was not the cause of [TGT]but there's reason to think a warmer planet can make such storms more devastating.
" [TGT]was almost certainly more intense than it would have been in the absence of human-caused warming " said one scientist.
Climate change didn't cause  [TGT] . But scientists can say it likely made the storm worse  according to Michael Mann  a distinguished professor of Atmospheric Science at Penn State.
"If you look at the ocean temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico  they're at near-record warm levels  about 87 Fahrenheit underneath  [TGT]  right now  that's about 2 degrees Fahrenheit above average for this time of year. That's a lot of extra heat energy available to evaporate water vapor into the air " Jeff Masters  a meteorologist at The Weather Company who cofounded the weather-data website Weather Underground  told Business Insider on Thursday.
As  [TGT]picked up more moisture  it rapidly strengthened from a tropical storm to a category 4 hurricane before making landfall  after which it stalled as a tropical storm  dumping so much rain that the National Weather Service had to add more colors to its map.
 [TGT]has been described as a once-in-500-years-event  though some spots could hit the once-in-a-million-years benchmark. But such events seem to be becoming more common  as evidenced by major recent storms like Allison in 2001  Rita in 2005  and Ike in 2008. By some definitions  the Houston area faced 500-year floods in both 2015 and 2016.