A Storm-Surge of Extreme Hurricanes
Storm World author Chris Mooney has a good post, “Gonu, Monica, Wilma, Ioke … Hurricane Intensity Records Just Keep Breaking.”
Mooney explains that Cyclone Gonu is the “strongest storm ever recorded in the Arabian Sea (140 knot winds, making Gonu the first recorded Category 5 storm in this region),” and the “First/strongest recorded hurricane to hit Oman/Gulf of Oman/Iran.” He then notes that Gonu “closely follows”:
2004’s Cyclone Catarina, the first known hurricane to form in the South Atlantic and strike Brazil (and thus by definition the strongest recorded storm in this region).
2005’s Hurricane Wilma, which at 882 millibars had the lowest central pressure ever measured in the Atlantic basin.
2006’s Cyclone Monica, apparently the strongest storm ever recorded in the Southern Hemisphere.
2006’s Hurricane/Typhoon Ioke, the longest lived storm at Category 4 intensity or higher, and most intense hurricane ever recorded in the Central Pacific.
Climate change? You be the judge. Here’s Mooney’s view:
Is this all coincidence? In many parts of the world our historical tropical cyclone records are extremely poor…. Could it be that if they were better, many of these “records” would disappear?
I don’t know. I can’t say one way or another. I can only cite the records and say that they are certainly consistent with the idea that global warming is causing an intensification of the average hurricane.
