As our planet’s climate changes, experts say more severe storms like Hurricane Helene could be the new reality.
“We’re still in hurricane season right now,” said Marshall Shepherd, director of the Atmospheric Sciences program at the University of Georgia. “We are still behind it, but it will certainly continue until November. So there is still the threat or potential for tropical storms and hurricanes for at least another six to eight weeks.
“That said, I don’t see anything on the horizon in the coming weeks that would impact Augusta or Georgia at this time.”
Shepherd said he watches any activity during severe weather.
“There is certainly a system that the National Hurricane Center is currently monitoring in the western Caribbean that could reach the Gulf of Mexico,” he said. “But it appears it will be an undeveloped, unfocused, unnamed system that will likely move toward the Florida Peninsula and produce a lot of rain. Again, we’ll continue to monitor it because in the Gulf of Mexico, things can often change when the water is this warm.”
Hurricane Helene made landfall in the Big Bend area of Florida’s Gulf Coast late in the evening of September 26 as a Category 4 storm.
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Helene moved north across the Deep South and then northwest across the southern Appalachians. The storm caused significant impacts across much of the Southeast, especially around the southern Appalachians, according to the National Weather Service. Total rainfall during the storm ranged from less than an inch along the coast to more than 4 inches inland.
“I think the takeaway from this is that we have entered a weather-climate era where hurricanes are no longer just coastal threats,” he said. “The intensity of storms is increasing, which means it takes longer for them to calm down. Don’t just look at Helene. Go back to 2018, when Hurricane Michael made landfall in Georgia. Look back earlier this year with Hurricane Debby.
“I grew up in Georgia. I don’t recall seeing hurricane warnings and warnings in the southern and central parts of our state. Yet we have seen it several times in recent years.”
Shepherd said educating the community about severe weather is critical.
“It is increasingly important for Georgians, even those on the coast, to become familiar with the many impacts a hurricane can bring,” Shepherd said. “Don’t just concentrate on the track or the line. Understand that these storms are broad and have broad impacts with wind, rain and tornadoes. We’re going to have to start providing hurricane education to inland communities. As an academic, I will be thinking about ways I can seek funding to focus on domestic hurricane preparedness. That’s crazy to say, but I think this is our reality for the future.”
Eleanor Partington, duty climatologist with the Georgia Environmental Protection Division, said climate change plays a role when it comes to tropical storms and hurricanes.
“Hurricane Helene in particular was a very fast-moving storm,” Partington said. “The storm had sufficient strength and did not lose structure over land. Many hurricanes will strike land, break up and weaken immediately. But Helene had enough momentum for these impacts to be felt far inland because the storm was moving so quickly.
“Because of the changing climate, we have seen more hurricanes linger over one area and dump a lot of water.”
Partington said Helene acted unexpectedly.
“Helene has actually broken the pattern that we’ve seen with climate change,” she said. ‘Helene didn’t dwell on one specific area. It moved incredibly fast and had an incredibly widespread impact, reaching far inland. Research so far has shown that hurricanes are becoming worse and more intense due to climate change.”
This reporting content is supported by a partnership with several funders and Journalism Funding Funding Partners.
Erica Van Buren is a climate change reporter for The Augusta Chronicle, part of the USA TODAY Network. Contact her at EVanBuren@gannett.com or at X: @EricaVanBuren32.
This article originally appeared in the Augusta Chronicle: Climate change is causing more severe and frequent tropical storms
