In a span of three weeks, three hurricanes had made landfall in the Caribbean Islands and The United States. Hurricane Harvey was a Category 4 hurricane that made landfall in Texas on August 25th as the first major hurricane since Wilma in 2005. The cost of damage is predicted to be around $180 billion, making it the costliest hurricane in recorded history.
A week later, Hurricane Irma made landfall in the Caribbean Islands as a Category 5 hurricane, hitting Puerto Rico, Cuba, and decimating the island of Barbuda, making the island practically uninhabitable, and impacting the Florida keys and Tampa area, hitting record floods and becoming one of the most powerful hurricanes ever. Around the same time, Hurricane Jose arrived, another Category 4 that started as a tropical wave west of the African Continent.
With a fourth hurricane, Hurricane Maria, currently plowing through Dominica and Puerto Rico as a Category 4 storm, we are witnessing one of the most active hurricane seasons since 2005, and some of the strongest storms on record. According to The Weather Channel's Hurricane Irma tracker, the pressure of the cyclone was as low as 913 mb, making the storm stronger than Hurricane Katrina while it reached speeds of up to 185 mph.
These storms, of course, are natural disasters and are very difficult to handle. Citizens on the shore are warned to evacuate. Houses are boarded and extra food and gas is stored and saved for emergency. However, these storms are getting stronger and stronger and are only a foreshadow of what might come. What is to blame?
The earth is warming. According to NASA, the earth has warmed up by approximately 1.1 degrees Celsius and is continuing to warm up at an exponential rate. Warmer waters are the driving force for hurricanes, and it seems to be apparent during the 2017 hurricane season.
As we get warmer and warmer over the next decade or so, these storms might become stronger than we realize, and Barbuda may not be the only uninhabited island.