‘You Should Be Shaken Too’: US Meteorologist Fighting Back Tears Over Hurricane Milton Says ‘Very Little’ Has Been Done to Stop Climate Change
A US meteorologist who went viral after choking up on air while discussing Hurricane Milton’s intensity said he is frustrated at the inaction over climate change.
John Morales, who has been talking about climate change on air for more than two decades, was filmed fighting back tears as he described the speed at which the storm intensified. Milton formed in the Gulf of Mexico and intensified into a Category 5 hurricane in the course of only two days.
“[The] normal rate of rapid intensification is a 35 mile per hour increase in wind speeds in a span of 24 hours. Here, that was more than doubled,” explained Morales. “Extreme rapid intensification starts at 58 miles per hour every 24 hours. But here we saw 92 miles per hour in 24 hours.”
Milton was the fastest Atlantic hurricane to intensify from a tropical depression to a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale, the most widely recognized risk assessment method for hurricanes, according to NASA. Packing winds of at least 157 mph (252 km/h), Category 5 hurricanes, the highest level on the scale, are expected to cause “catastrophic” damage and loss.
According to Morales, rapid hurricane intensification makes tropical storm systems more dangerous.
“[First] of all, it allows for greater damaging wind speed,” the meteorologist told the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists last week. “So in other words, as you go through rapid intensification, it is becoming a potentially more destructive hurricane, just based on wind. But then a stronger wind speed will drive more water towards the coast. So along coasts that are susceptible to storm surge, a stronger hurricane will generally result in deeper, wider storm surge, especially if the wind field expands like is expected to happen with Milton.”
But besides this, rapidly intensifying storms leave less time for authorities to issue warning systems, putting coastal communities in great danger. In 2022, for example, Hurricane Ian devastated portions of Florida after it rapidly intensified, packing two days’ worth of rapid intensification into less than 36 hours.
Hurricanes – also known as typhoons in the northwestern Pacific and cyclones in the Indian Ocean and South Pacific – are a rather common, natural weather phenomenon, though there has been a significant increase in their intensity in recent decades, which scientific observations link to human-made climate change.
These abnormal trends are attributed largely to the increased ocean temperatures. As ocean surfaces warm, so does the air above it, causing water to be carried up to high altitudes to form clouds, while leaving a low pressure zone beneath causing more air to rush in. For every 1C that Earth’s atmospheric temperature rises, the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere can increase by about 7%.
As these systems build up, thunderstorms are formed, and if there are no strong winds to slow it down, they can become hurricanes. While the number of hurricanes is not necessarily increasing, those that do form are becoming more destructive – generating heavier rain and a higher storm surge.
A quick attribution study published late last week found that hurricanes like Milton are 40% more likely to occur in today’s world, which has warmed 1.3C since the Industrial Revolution.
The burning of coal, natural gas, and oil for electricity and heat is the single-largest source of global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, the primary drivers of global warming by trapping heat in the atmosphere and raising Earth’s surface temperature. While scientists have long warned that curbing fossil fuel extraction and consumption is the only way to halt global warming and secure a liveable future, global fossil fuel consumption has more than doubled in the last 50 years.
“I have been talking about this for 20 plus years, trying to alert people of what was coming, trying to advocate for climate action. Nothing—or very little, has been done. Let’s say very little. Very little has been done to mitigate what’s causing global warming, and therefore, here we are,” said Morales.
