If you live in Florida, one word you don’t want to hear on the evening news is “hurricane.” I lived in Florida in 1972 and 1975, and I don’t recall a concern about hurricanes. But now, friends that I have that do live in Florida have been affected for the past two-three years by the devastation brought on by very powerful hurricane seasons. What can hurricanes teach us about climate change? How can teachers inform their students of changes that many scientists think are occuring to the earth’s climates?

There are at least two schools of thought concerning climate change. Some scientists think that the increase in the number and intensity of hurricanes is part of a natural cycle of ebb and flow, and that we are in the midst of part of the cycle that followed a period of decreased hurricane intensity. They say that the earth’s climates have changed through time, with periods of colder weather following warmer weather, increased hurricane intensity followed by an ebb in intensity, and so forth. One scientist at Colorado State University who doesn’t accept the concept of global warming, but rather sees natural cycles at work is Prof. Bill Gray. Gray is known as one of the most famous weather predicters but feels that global warming is a hoax.

A second school of thought claims that the burning of coal and other fossil fuels has released enormous amounts of carbon dioxide gas into the atmosphere, causing a warming trend since 1860. Not only has the atmosphere heated up, but so has the land surface and surface water temperatures of the oceans. It’s the increased surface water temperatures that has interested climate scientists who study hurricanes because hurricanes “feed” or get their energy from warm ocean water. Increase the water temperature, and you have provided additional energy resulting in increased numbers and more intense hurricanes, they say.

Research done at Georgia Institute of Technology and reported elsewhere supports the second claim. Studying hurricanes from the period 1970 to 2004, researchers found that the number of category 4 and 5 hurricanes has more than doubled after 1990. This is shown in the graph below.

Hurricane Katrina is an example of one of the most powerful hurricanes to affect the United States. After the hurricane, I developed a Katrina website as a resource for teachers to use help inform their students of hurricanes in general, and Katrina specifically.

The hurricane season has begun with Alberto, which fortunately weakened after it nearly reached hurricane winds. But it the season wake-up call for coastal citizens, and those of us inland that another season is apon us. Some are predicting an intense season.