This Year's Hurricane Season Was Intense. Is It A Taste Of The Future? : The Two
Kerry Emanuel
There are other factors at work besides warming. A global weather pattern called El Niño was absent this year  and that often means a stormier Atlantic Ocean. One reason is that high-altitude "shear winds" in the Atlantic that often nip the tops off budding hurricanes were absent  as well. 
Atmospheric scientist Kerry Emanuel at MIT  notes that there's also a rather mysterious cycle for Atlantic hurricanes. It seems to repeat about every decade. "We don't really understand it  [but] it's there "  he  says  and it also influences when and how often hurricanes arise. Sure enough  it was 12 years ago  in 2005  when the Atlantic saw such a similarly huge hurricane year.
 Emanuel  says scientists aren't clear whether hurricanes are becoming more common; reliable records for hurricanes go back only about 50 years in the Atlantic  so it's difficult to detect a long-term trend  and data for the Pacific are even scarcer. Theoretically   he  says  some aspects of warming could actually decrease the frequency of hurricanes by drying out parts of the atmosphere. But those that do arise are likely to be nastier. "Insofar as the storms are intense and produce a lot of rain "  he  says  "they're a window into our long-term future."
And it's a costly future   Emanuel  says. "We're just going to get more and more destruction "  he  predicts  "because we just encourage people to live and build in dangerous places" like low-lying coastlines — a fact independent of climate change.
There are other factors at work besides warming. A global weather pattern called El Niño was absent this year  and that often means a stormier Atlantic Ocean. One reason is that high-altitude "shear winds" in the Atlantic that often nip the tops off budding hurricanes were absent  as well. 
[TGT]notes that there's also a rather mysterious cycle for Atlantic hurricanes. It seems to repeat about every decade. "We don't really understand it  [but] it's there "  [TGT]  says  and it also influences when and how often hurricanes arise. Sure enough  it was 12 years ago  in 2005  when the Atlantic saw such a similarly huge hurricane year.
 [TGT]says scientists aren't clear whether hurricanes are becoming more common; reliable records for hurricanes go back only about 50 years in the Atlantic  so it's difficult to detect a long-term trend  and data for the Pacific are even scarcer. Theoretically   [TGT]  says  some aspects of warming could actually decrease the frequency of hurricanes by drying out parts of the atmosphere. But those that do arise are likely to be nastier. "Insofar as the storms are intense and produce a lot of rain "  [TGT]  says  "they're a window into our long-term future."
And it's a costly future   [TGT]says. "We're just going to get more and more destruction "  he  predicts  "because we just encourage people to live and build in dangerous places" like low-lying coastlines — a fact independent of climate change.