Latest news with #BrianMcNoldy
E&E News
30-06-2025
- Climate
- E&E News
Trump terminates satellite data considered crucial to storm forecasting
A Department of Defense weather satellite program that collects vital information for hurricane forecasts will stop distributing data products to users Monday. The termination of data products from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program could lead to dangerous declines in the quality of hurricane forecasts, meteorologists say. That's especially worrying, they say, as the termination comes in the middle of this year's hurricane season. 'There is no sugar-coating it: hurricane forecasts will undoubtedly be worse after this loss,' said Brian McNoldy, a hurricane expert at the University of Miami, in an email to POLITICO's E&E News. 'For anyone near a hurricane-prone area, this is alarmingly bad news.' Advertisement NOAA, which provides operational support for the program, issued a termination notice Wednesday. The agency did not provide reasons for the decision. An official for the U.S. Space Force, which manages the program, confirmed that the satellites and their instruments are still fully functional. And the Defense Department will still have access to DMSP data. But for the program's large network of users, the data products are going dark — and it's still unclear why. The Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center is responsible for processing the program's data and sending it to NOAA for public distribution, the Space Force official said, noting that questions about the reasons for the termination should be directed to the Navy. The Navy's press office did not immediately respond to requests for comment. DMSP has operated since the 1960s. It's a constellation of weather satellites collecting a variety of measurements used to track everything from thunderstorms to fog to snow and ice cover. Its data products are used by researchers around the world, including forecasters at the National Weather Service. 'Insanity' One of the program's key capabilities is its specialized microwave sensor. This instrument provides detailed scans that allow scientists to effectively see through the tops of clouds and examine the weather systems below, including rain, ice and cloud structures closer to the surface of the Earth. These microwave scans are crucial for accurate hurricane models, meteorologists say. They help scientists keep tabs on the way storms develop and intensify. They also help scientists pinpoint the location of tropical cyclones over the ocean, helping to narrow down track forecasts. Microwave data is especially helpful for projecting rapid-intensification events, when hurricanes make sudden, extreme gains in wind speed over a short period of time. Rapid intensification is notoriously difficult to predict, and it's famously dangerous — it can cause tropical storms to balloon into major hurricanes over the course of a day, leaving emergency managers little time to prepare. It's only in relatively recent years that scientists have made major strides in improving these forecasts. Now, experts are worried that the loss of DMSP data will hamstring their models this hurricane season. DMSP accounts for as much as half of the microwave scans that help forecasters build their predictions. 'There is critical information that we can get from these satellites that we cannot get from more traditional visible or infrared satellites,' said scientist Philip Klotzbach, who leads Colorado State University's annual Atlantic hurricane forecasts, adding that the announcement was 'certainly a surprise to me.' McNoldy, of the University of Miami, said that his 'gut reaction was disbelief' when he heard the news. 'Microwave data are already relatively sparse, so any loss — even gradual as satellites or instruments fail — is a big deal; but to abruptly end three active functioning satellites is insanity,' he added in an email. Storm-chasing aircraft, like NOAA's famed Hurricane Hunters, can provide some of the same kinds of data supplied by microwave sensors. But these aircraft typically deploy only for Atlantic hurricanes expected to make landfall, and they're rarely used in the Pacific. DMSP isn't the only satellite program that collects microwave scans. NASA has a satellite with similar capabilities, and so does at least one Japanese satellite, according to McNoldy. NOAA maintains three satellites with microwave sensors, but they operate at a lower resolution and tend to be less useful for detailed hurricane forecasts. That makes DMSP one of the biggest single sources of high-quality microwave data. Michael Lowry, a hurricane specialist with WPLG-TV in Miami and a former scientist with NOAA's National Hurricane Center, estimates that DMSP provides roughly 50 percent of all available microwave scans to forecasters. Without the DMSP scans, 'data availability will be sliced in half, greatly increasing the odds of missing rapid intensification episodes, underestimating intensity, or misplacing the storm and degrading forecast accuracy,' Lowry wrote in a Substack post yesterday. Maria Torres, a public affairs officer with the National Hurricane Center, said in an email that National Weather Service models continue to incorporate data from a variety of other sources, including other satellites, Hurricane Hunter flights, buoys and ground-based instruments. 'NOAA's data sources are fully capable of providing a complete suite of cutting-edge data and models that ensure the gold-standard weather forecasting the American people deserve,' she said. Extreme weather blind spots The DMSP terminations are the latest in a string of cuts that experts say are blinding the country to the impacts of climate change. Thousands of federal workers have already left the agencies responsible for climate and environmental monitoring, including NOAA, NASA and EPA. The White House's budget request for fiscal 2026 has proposed catastrophic cuts to climate and weather research programs, including the elimination of NOAA's entire research arm. The impacts on extreme weather forecasts are top of mind for many experts at the moment. Wildfires have raged across the country since the start of the year, with hundreds of active fires exploding across interior Alaska just this month. An unusually active tornado season killed dozens of people this spring. And hurricane season is underway, with forecasts predicting above-average activity this year. Experts have warned that recent chaos at the agencies responsible for disaster forecasting and response, including NOAA and FEMA, could pose major safety issues when extreme weather strikes this summer. Hurricane forecasts aren't the only scientific tools threatened by the DMSP losses. The program's data products also help scientists keep track of snow and ice cover around the globe. The Arctic is one of the fastest-warming regions on Earth, heating up as much as four times faster than the rest of the globe. Some studies warn that the Arctic Ocean could begin to see ice-free summers within a matter of decades, with dramatic consequences for local ecosystems, economies and cultural practices. Meanwhile, melting ice from Antarctica, Greenland and mountain glaciers around the world is the biggest driver of global sea-level rise, which poses an existential threat to coastal communities and small island nations around the world as temperatures rise. That makes polar research more critical now than ever, scientists say. The National Snow and Ice Data Center issued two notices Wednesday warning that the DMSP terminations will affect a variety of its data products. The center — a polar research institute at the NOAA-funded Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences in Colorado — said it is exploring alternative data sources. But it added that users 'should anticipate a gap in data availability' in the meantime. Still, this summer's hurricane forecasts are among the most pressing potential casualties of the DMSP data losses. 'I worry that if we lose another tool we use to diagnose storms, it can be another thing that will make the forecasts a little bit harder,' said Andrew Hazelton, a hurricane model expert at the University of Miami and a former NOAA scientist who was fired amid the Trump administration's recent layoffs. He said he didn't want to overstate the potential consequences of the losses but noted that there are very few other sources of high-quality microwave data for hurricane forecasts. Other scientists expressed fears about the dangers to human life. Posting on Bluesky early Thursday morning, hurricane researcher Jimmy Yunge shared a message he wrote to NOAA's Office of Satellite and Product Operations expressing his alarm. 'This decision will kill people,' he wrote. 'I seriously urge all of those involved to reverse this policy, and call on those who have any amount of leverage in the upper administration to push back at any and every level under moral and practical grounds.'
Yahoo
28-06-2025
- Climate
- Yahoo
Deep cuts to hurricane data could leave forecasters in the dark
Forecasters are set to lose some of their sharpest eyes in the sky just a few months before Atlantic hurricane season peaks when the Department of Defense halts a key source of satellite data over cybersecurity concerns. The data comes from microwave sensors attached to three aging polar-orbiting satellites operated for both military and civilian purposes. Data from the sensors is critical to hurricane forecasters because it allows them to peer through layers of clouds and into the center of a storm, where rain and thunderstorms develop, even at night. The sensors don't rely on visible light. Losing the data — at a time when the National Weather Service is releasing fewer weather balloons and the agency is short on meteorologists because of budget cuts — will make it more likely that forecasters miss key developments in a hurricane, several hurricane experts said. Those changes help meteorologists determine what level of threat a storm may pose and therefore how emergency managers ought to prepare. Microwave data offers some of the earliest indications that sustained winds are strengthening inside a storm. 'It's really the instrument that allows us to look under the hood. It's definitely a significant loss. There's no doubt at all hurricane forecasts will be degraded because of this,' said Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher and senior research associate at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science. 'They're able to detect when an eye wall forms in a tropical storm and if it's intensifying — or rapidly intensifying.' Researchers think rapid intensification is becoming more likely in tropical storms as the oceans warm as a result of human-caused climate change. The three satellites are operated for both military and civilian purposes through the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, a joint effort of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Defense. While hurricane experts said they were concerned about losing the tool, Kim Doster, NOAA's communications director, downplayed the decision's effect on hurricane forecasting by the National Weather Service. In an email, Doster said the military's microwave data 'is a single dataset in a robust suite of hurricane forecasting and modeling tools in the NWS portfolio.' Doster said these models include data from geostationary satellites — a different system that constantly observes Earth from about 22,300 miles away and offers a vantage point that appears fixed because the satellites synchronize with Earth's rotation. They also ingest measurements from Hurricane Hunter aircraft missions, buoys, weather balloons, land-based radar and from other polar-orbiting satellites, including NOAA's Joint Polar Satellite System, which she said provides 'the richest, most accurate satellite weather observations available.' A U.S. Space Force official said the satellites and their instruments in question remain functional and that the data will be sent directly to weather satellite readout terminals across the DOD. The Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center made the decision to stop processing that data and sharing it publicly, the official said. The Navy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier this week, a division of the Navy notified researchers that it would cease to process and share the data on or before June 30, and some researchers received an email from the Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center, saying that its data storage and sharing program relied on a processing station that was using an 'end-of-life' operating system with vulnerabilities. 'The operating system cannot be upgraded, poses a cybersecurity concern, and introduces risk to DoD networks,' the email, which was reviewed by NBC News, said. The move will cut the amount of microwave data available to forecasters in half, McNoldy estimated. This microwave data is also used by snow and ice scientists to track the extent of polar sea ice, which helps scientists understand long-term climate trends. Sea ice forms from frozen ocean water. It grows in coverage during winter months and typically melts during warmer times of the year. Sea ice reflects sunlight back into space, which cools the planet. That makes it an important metric to track over time. The extent of summer Arctic sea ice is trending lower because of global warming. Walt Meier, a senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, said his program learned of the Navy's decision earlier this week. Meier said the satellites and sensors are about 16 years old. Researchers have been preparing for them to eventually fail, but they weren't expecting the military to pull the plug on data with little warning, he said. Meier said the National Snow and Ice Data Center has relied on the military satellites for data on sea ice coverage since 1987, but will adapt its systems to use similar microwave data from a Japanese satellite, called AMSR-2, instead. 'It certainly could be a few weeks before we get that data into our system,' Meier said. 'I don't think it's going to undermine our sea ice climate data record in terms of confidence in it, but it's going to be more challenging.' The polar-orbiting satellites that are part of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program provide intermittent coverage of hurricane-prone areas. The satellites typically zip around the globe in a north-south orientation every 90-100 minutes in a relatively low orbit, Meier said. The microwave sensors scan across a narrow swath of the earth, which Meier estimated at roughly 1,500 miles. As the Earth rotates, these polar-orbiting satellites can capture imagery that helps researchers determine the structure and potential intensity of a storm, if it happens to be in their path. 'It's often just by luck, you'll get a really nice pass over a hurricane,' McNoldy said, adding that the change will reduce the geographic area covered by microwave scans and the frequency of scans of a particular storm. Andy Hazelton, a hurricane modeler and associate scientist with the University of Miami Cooperative Institute for Marine & Atmospheric Studies, said the microwave data is used in some hurricane models and also by forecasters who can access near real-time visualizations of the data. Hazelton said forecasters are always looking for visual signatures in microwave data that often provide the first evidence a storm is rapidly intensifying and building strength. The National Hurricane Center defines rapid intensification as a 35-mph or higher increase in sustained winds inside a tropical storm within 24 hours. Losing the microwave data is particularly important now because in recent years, scientists have observed an increase in rapid intensification, a trend likely fueled in part by climate change as ocean waters warm. A 2023 study published the journal Scientific Reports found that tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean were about 29% more likely to undergo rapid intensification from 2001 to 2020, compared to 1971 to 1990. Last year, Hurricane Milton strengthened from a tropical storm to a Category 5 hurricane in just 36 hours. Some of that increase took place overnight, when other satellite instruments offer less information. The trend is particularly dangerous when a storm, like Hurricane Idalia, intensifies just before striking the coast. 'We've certainly seen in recent years many cases of rapid intensification ahead of landfall. That's the kind of thing you really don't want to miss,' McNoldy said, adding that microwave data is 'excellent at giving the important extra 12 hours of lead time to see the inner core changes happening.' Brian LaMarre, the former meteorologist-in-charge at the National Weather Service's weather forecasting station in Tampa Bay, said the data is also useful for predicting flood impacts as a hurricane comes ashore. 'That scan can help predict where the heavier precipitation and rainfall rates can be,' LaMarre said. 'This data is critically important to public safety.' Hurricane season begins June 1 and ends Nov. 30. It typically starts to peak in late summer and early fall. NOAA forecasters have predicted a more busy 2025 hurricane season than typical, with six to 10 hurricanes. This article was originally published on
NBC News
27-06-2025
- Climate
- NBC News
Deep cuts to hurricane data could leave forecasters in the dark
Forecasters are set to lose some of their sharpest eyes in the sky just a few months before Atlantic Hurricane season peaks when the Department of Defense halts a key source of satellite data over cybersecurity concerns. The data comes from microwave sensors attached to three aging polar-orbiting satellites operated for both military and civilian purposes. Data from the sensors is critical to hurricane forecasters because it allows them to peer through layers of clouds and into the center of a storm, where rain and thunderstorms develop, even at night. The sensors don't rely on visible light. Losing the data — at a time when the National Weather Service is releasing fewer weather balloons and the agency is short on meteorologists because of budget cuts — will make it more likely that forecasters miss key developments in a hurricane, several hurricane experts said. Those changes help meteorologists determine what level of threat a storm may pose and therefore how emergency managers ought to prepare. Microwave data offers some of the earliest indications that sustained winds are strengthening inside a storm. 'It's really the instrument that allows us to look under the hood. It's definitely a significant loss. There's no doubt at all hurricane forecasts will be degraded because of this,' said Brian McNoldy, a hurricane researcher and senior research associate at the University of Miami's Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science. 'They're able to detect when an eyewall forms in a tropical storm and if it's intensifying — or rapidly intensifying.' Researchers think rapid intensification is becoming more likely in tropical storms as the oceans warm as a result of human-caused climate change. The three satellites are operated for both military and civilian purposes through the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program, a joint effort of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the Department of Defense (DoD). While hurricane experts said they were concerned about losing the tool, Kim Doster, NOAA's communications director, downplayed the decision's effect on hurricane forecasting by the National Weather Service. In an email, Doster said the military's microwave data 'is a single dataset in a robust suite of hurricane forecasting and modeling tools in the NWS portfolio.' Doster said these models include data from geostationary satellites — a different system that constantly observes Earth from about 22,300 miles away and offers a vantage point that appears fixed because the satellites synchronize with Earth's rotation. They also ingest measurements from Hurricane Hunter aircraft missions, buoys, weather balloons, land-based radar and from other polar-orbiting satellites, including NOAA's Joint Polar Satellite System, which she said provides 'the richest, most accurate satellite weather observations available.' A U.S. Space Force official said the satellites and their instruments in question remain functional and that the data will be sent directly to weather satellite readout terminals across DoD. The Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center made the decision to stop processing that data and sharing it publicly, the official said. The Navy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Earlier this week, a division of the Navy notified researchers that it would cease to process and share the data on or before June 30 and some researchers received an email from the Navy's Fleet Numerical Meteorology and Oceanography Center, saying that its data storage and sharing program relied on a processing station that was using an 'end-of-life' operating system with vulnerabilities. 'The operating system cannot be upgraded, poses a cybersecurity concern, and introduces risk to DoD networks,' the email, which was reviewed by NBC News, said. The move will cut the amount of microwave data available to forecasters in half, McNoldy estimated. This microwave data is also used by snow and ice scientists to track the extent of polar sea ice, which helps scientists understand long-term climate trends. Sea ice forms from frozen ocean water. It grows in coverage during winter months and typically melts during warmer times of the year. Sea ice reflects sunlight back into space, which cools the planet. That makes it an important metric to track over time. The extent of summer Arctic sea ice is trending lower because of global warming. Walt Meier, a senior research scientist at the National Snow and Ice Data Center, said his program learned of the Navy's decision earlier this week. Meier said the satellites and sensors are about 16 years old. Researchers have been preparing for them to eventually fail, but they weren't expecting the military to pull the plug on data with little warning, he said. Meier said the National Snow and Ice Data Center has relied on the military satellites for data on sea ice coverage since 1987, but will adapt its systems to use similar microwave data from a Japanese satellite, called AMSR-2, instead. 'It certainly could be a few weeks before we get that data into our system,' Meier said. 'I don't think it's going to undermine our sea ice climate data record in terms of confidence in it, but it's going to be more challenging.' The polar-orbiting satellites that are part of the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program provide intermittent coverage of hurricane-prone areas. The satellites typically zip around the globe in a north-south orientation every 90-100 minutes in a relatively low orbit, Meier said. The microwave sensors scan across a narrow swath of the earth, which Meier estimated at roughly 1,500 miles. As the Earth rotates, these polar-orbiting satellites can capture imagery that helps researchers determine the structure and potential intensity of a storm, if it happens to be in their path. 'It's often just by luck, you'll get a really nice pass over a hurricane,' McNoldy said, adding that the change will reduce the geographic area covered by microwave scans and the frequency of scans of a particular storm. Andy Hazelton, a hurricane modeler and associate scientist with the University of Miami Cooperative Institute for Marine & Atmospheric Studies, said the microwave data is used in some hurricane models and also by forecasters who can access near-real time visualizations of the data. Hazelton said forecasters are always looking for visual signatures in microwave data that often provide the first evidence a storm is rapidly intensifying and building strength. The National Hurricane Center defines rapid intensification as a 35-mph or higher increase in sustained winds inside a tropical storm within 24 hours. Losing the microwave data is particularly important now because in recent years, scientists have observed an increase in rapid intensification, a trend likely fueled, in part, by climate change as ocean waters warm. A 2023 study published the journal Scientific Reports found that tropical cyclones in the Atlantic Ocean were about 29% more likely to undergo rapid intensification from 2001 to 2020, compared to 1971 to 1990. Last year, Hurricane Milton strengthened from a tropical storm to a Category-5 hurricane in just 36 hours. Some of that increase took place overnight, when other satellite instruments offer less information. The trend is particularly dangerous when a storm, like Hurricane Idalia, intensifies just before striking the coast. 'We've certainly seen in recent years, many cases of rapid intensification ahead of landfall. That's the kind of thing you really don't want to miss,' McNoldy said, adding that microwave data 'are excellent at giving the important extra 12 hours of lead time to see the inner core changes happening.' Brian LaMarre, the former meteorologist-in-charge at the National Weather Service's weather forecasting station in Tampa Bay, said the data is also useful for predicting flood impacts as a hurricane comes ashore. 'That scan can help predict where the heavier precipitation and rainfall rates can be,' LaMarre said. 'This data is critically important to public safety.' Hurricane season begins June 1 and ends Nov. 30. It typically starts to peak in late summer and early fall. NOAA forecasters have predicted a more busy 2025 hurricane season than typical, with six to ten hurricanes.
Indian Express
19-06-2025
- Climate
- Indian Express
Here's why Hurricane Erick is quickly strengthening into dangerous storm
Having doubled in strength in less than a day and still expected to grow further, Hurricane Erick on Wednesday chugged through the ideal environment to power up quickly as it approached Mexico's southern Pacific Coast. This type of rapid intensification has become more common in a warmer climate, especially in the Atlantic and near the United States, which is not where Erick is now, scientists said. Last year, there were 34 incidents of rapid intensification — when a storm gains at least 35 mph in 24 hours — which is about twice as many as average and causes problems with forecasting, according to the National Hurricane Center. Erick, an otherwise run-of-the-mill hurricane that's strong but not unusual, gained 50 mph in just 18 hours and was still powering up as it neared the coast. The only thing that's unusual so far is that this is the fifth eastern Pacific storm a month into the season there, which is a little more active than normal, said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy. And it's likely that when Erick hits, it will be the strongest storm to make landfall in that part of Mexico this early in the season, he said. On average, the fifth named storm first appears in the Eastern Pacific basin around July 23, according to the hurricane center. The Eastern Pacific hurricane season, which starts May 15 and runs through Nov. 30, averages 15 named storms, eight of which become hurricanes with four of those reaching major status of winds more than 110 mph (177 kph). In general, the eastern Pacific tends to have about one storm a year more than the Atlantic. But Atlantic storms tend to cause more destruction because they hit more populated areas. Because of where Erik is headed — nearing Acapulco — and its rapid intensification, the storm brings back bad memories of deadly Otis, which seemed to come from out of nowhere to smack Mexico with a top-of-the-scale Category 5 hurricane in 2023. But Erick is no Otis, especially because of their timing. Erick is an early-season storm and Otis hit in October. Forming in October, Otis grew stronger by churning up deeper and warmer water because it was later in the year. Erick is early in the year and the deep water it would churn up is cooler and doesn't fuel rapid intensification. Even so, the surface water is plenty hot enough, said MIT hurricane scientist Kerry Emanuel. All the ingredients are otherwise perfect for Erick's power-up, said University at Albany atmospheric scientist Kristen Corbosiero. Dry air often stops rapid intensification, but Erick hasn't run into dry air and the atmosphere around it is extremely moist, she said. It's got a good stormy eye forming and has what would be the ideal shape of a strengthening storm, she said. Studies have linked human-caused climate change in general to more bouts of rapid intensification, as well as wetter and slower storms, Corbosiero said. But it would take more study, usually after the storm hits, to find any potential link between global warming and Erick in particular, if there is one, she said.
Euronews
19-06-2025
- Climate
- Euronews
Why Hurricane Erick is quickly strengthening into dangerous storm
Having doubled in strength in less than a day and still expected to grow further, Hurricane Erick on Wednesday chugged through the ideal environment to power up quickly as it approached Mexico's southern Pacific Coast. By early Thursday, it had been upgraded to an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 hurricane with maximum wind speeds of 230 km/h. This type of rapid intensification has become more common in a warmer climate, especially in the Atlantic and near the United States, which is not where Erick is now, scientists said. Last year, there were 34 incidents of rapid intensification — when a storm gains at least 35 mph (56 km/h) in 24 hours — which is about twice as many as average and causes problems with forecasting, according to the National Hurricane Center. Erick, an otherwise run-of-the-mill hurricane that's strong but not unusual, gained 50 mph (80km/h) in just 18 hours and was still powering up as it neared the coast. The only thing that's unusual so far is that this is the fifth eastern Pacific storm a month into the season there, which is a little more active than normal, said University of Miami hurricane researcher Brian McNoldy. And it's likely that when Erick hits, it will be the strongest storm to make landfall in that part of Mexico this early in the season, he said. On average, the fifth named storm first appears in the Eastern Pacific basin around 23 July, according to the hurricane centre. The Eastern Pacific hurricane season, which starts 15 May and runs through 30 November, averages 15 named storms, eight of which become hurricanes, with four of those reaching major status of winds more than 177 kph. In general, the eastern Pacific tends to have about one storm a year more than the Atlantic. But Atlantic storms tend to cause more destruction because they hit more populated areas. Because of where Erik is headed — nearing Acapulco — and its rapid intensification, the storm brings back bad memories of deadly Otis, which seemed to come from out of nowhere to smack Mexico with a top-of-the-scale Category 5 hurricane in 2023. But Erick is no Otis, especially because of their timing. Erick is an early-season storm, and Otis hit in October. Forming in October, Otis grew stronger by churning up deeper and warmer water because it was later in the year. Erick is early in the year, and the deep water it would churn up is cooler and doesn't fuel rapid intensification. Even so, the surface water is plenty hot enough, said MIT hurricane scientist Kerry Emanuel. All the ingredients are otherwise perfect for Erick's power-up, said University at Albany atmospheric scientist Kristen Corbosiero. Dry air often stops rapid intensification, but Erick hasn't run into dry air, and the atmosphere around it is extremely moist, she said. It's got a good stormy eye forming and has what would be the ideal shape of a strengthening storm, she said. Studies have linked human-caused climate change in general to more bouts of rapid intensification, as well as wetter and slower storms, Corbosiero said. But it would take more study, usually after the storm hits, to find any potential link between global warming and Erick in particular, if there is one, she said.
