Global warming likely to stoke more powerful hurricanes: study

0 Comments | AFP, September, 2008

PARIS (AFP) — Global warming is likely to boost the power of the strongest tropical cyclones, a study released on Wednesday says.

An additional one degree Celsius (1.8 Fahrenheit) in sea temperatures in tropical regions where cyclones breed could lead to a nearly one-third rise in the number of the most powerful storms, it says.

"As the seas warm, the ocean has more energy to convert to tropical cyclone wind," say authors of the paper, released by the London weekly Nature.

Previous research, based on observations over the past 30 years, has already suggested that hurricanes -- as cyclones in the Atlantic are known -- have become more intense as a result of warmer seas.

But the observational record for the Atlantic is more detailed and goes back...