Hurricane sandy showed the strength of nature and we all remember what happened in New York and New Jersey last fall because of its damage. Some people were stuck in the airport and some went out of electricity. It was one of the most destructive storms in the United States history. 285 are the exact number of fatalities caused by sandy.Some people were wondering if it was one of the effects of global warming such as the rise of sea level and the melt of ice or just a simple tragedy that the United States passed through. So, the question that arises is: Did global warming contribute to the “super storm’s” havoc?
After the tragedy climatologists and researchers begun digging to know more about the cause of the storm and they found out that it was not mainly caused by global warming but it played an important role in making the hurricane worse. According to a new report from the department of energy:’’ climate change contributed to last year’s powerful Hurricane Sandy, which ravaged the Northeast’’.Many factors of global warming have participated in intensifying the storm’s destruction. Global warming increased the amount of moisture in the atmosphere, which impacted in the expansion of heavy precipitation. According to the center for climate and energy solutions: “Sandy carried an unusual amount of moisture, which increased the risk of very heavy precipitation within its path.” Also, the increase of sea level was a critical factor because each inch counted in the intensity of the storm. According to the website globalchange.gov: ”It is well-established that global warming has resulted in global sea-level rise”. Over the past 40 years, the rate of sea level raised four times faster than the normal average that it used to be before the effect of global warming. “This is particularly concerning for the northeastern U.S. coastline, where the rate of sea-level rise is four times faster than the global average.”
These extreme weather events such as hurricane sandy might be alarming us. We need to start thinking about reducing the risks of climate change by reducing the use of greenhouse gases to its normal level and the burnings in production procedures.
Work cited:
- http://theweek.com/article/index/246799/energy-department-global-warming-made-hurricane-sandy-worse
- http://energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2013/07/f2/20130710-Energy-Sector-Vulnerabilities-Report.pdf
- http://www.c2es.org/science-impacts/extreme-weather/climate-change-hurricane-sandy
- http://www.globalchange.gov/what-we-do/assessment/previous-assessments/global-climate-change-impacts-in-the-us-2009
- http://www.nature.com/news/us-northeast-coast-is-hotspot-for-rising-sea-levels-1.10880