Climate change increased wind speeds for every 2024 Atlantic hurricane: Analysis

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Introduction

Climate change increased maximum wind speeds for every Atlantic hurricane in 2024, according to a Climate Central analysis based on new, peer-reviewed research. Human-caused global warming elevated ocean temperatures and boosted all eleven storms’ intensities, increasing their highest sustained wind speeds by 9 to 28 miles per hour. This increase moved seven of the hurricanes into a higher Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale category and strengthened Hurricanes Debby and Oscar from tropical storms into hurricanes. 

This analysis used the methodology from a new study published on November 20, 2024, in Environmental Research: Climate, which introduced a rapid attribution framework to assess the impact of human-caused ocean warming on hurricane intensities. The study, Human-caused ocean warming has intensified recent hurricanes (Gilford et al., 2024), applied this framework to Atlantic hurricanes from 2019-2023, and these findings cover the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season. 

Key findings

• All eleven hurricanes in 2024 (as of November 10) intensified by 9-28 mph during the record-breaking ocean warmth of the 2024 hurricane season, strengthening over waters made as much as 2.5°F warmer because of climate change.

• Climate change made elevated sea surface temperatures (SST) in the tracks of 2024 hurricanes up to 800 times more likely.

• Human-warmed ocean temperatures made major hurricanes Helene and Milton even stronger, adding 16 mph and 23 mph, respectively. 

Table 1. Observed hurricane maximum wind speeds (mph) before landfall and the increases in wind speed due to human-caused ocean warming for each storm during the 2024 Atlantic hurricane season (through November 11, 2024).

Major funding provided by the Bezos Earth Fund and The Schmidt Family Foundation.