After the hurricanes, many skyscrapers in the US are life threatening

People contribute to the fact that hurricanes are becoming more abundant and destructive, but it does not always happen the same way, show two new independent research.

Фото: Depositphotos

Hurricane Harvey literally “caught” on the skyscrapers of Houston, which led to a slowdown in its pace - so as a result, more rain fell on the city than would have happened in other areas, writes New York Post. Huge, paved areas in the city’s streets reinforced this effect by reducing natural drainage and drainage.

Researchers say that the development and development of metropolitan areas of large cities increases the chances of extreme flooding by 21.

The second study examined the May hurricanes Maria and Irma last year, as well as the deadly Katrina 2005 of the year. Specialists used special computer simulation systems to see what would happen as a result of natural disasters if there were no global warming caused by man.

The results showed that climate change significantly increased rainfall from these three hurricanes, but did not increase their wind speed.

Houston was literally "caught" by Hurricane Harvey - the storm's winds were delayed and slowed by skyscrapers, said study co-author Gabrielle Villarini, a professor of civil and environmental engineering at the University of Iowa.

Co-author Gabe Vecchi, a climate scientist at Princeton University, said that all this caused a storm to rise higher, triggering more heavy and concentrated rainfall over Houston, and the situation was only getting worse because of the slowing down of the wind speed.

The expert compared the effect to a river running over rocks and creating bubbles. All this is intensified where large areas are occupied by pavements and construction - all this does not allow water to go into the ground.

Harvey's record rainfall reached 5 feet (1,5 meters) near Houston. Scientists used computer simulations to observe the effects of urbanization. As a result of working with models in some parts of the metropolitan area and neighborhoods of Houston, the consequences of human actions ranged from the risk of extreme flooding in the less developed northwest (10% higher) to almost 92 multiple risk in the northeast.

MIT hurricane and climate expert Kerry Emanuel, who did not participate in the study, called her colleagues ’work" a real step forward in our understanding of the impact of hurricanes on urban areas. "

But Texas climatologist John Nielsen-Gammon is not so sure about the results. In his opinion, the team used common figures instead of evidence from Houston. He said that the wind speed in a storm may have slowed, but this is not the same as slowing the hurricane forward.

Another study, published by Nature, reviewed various devastating hurricanes, known stories, and attempted to calculate past and future effects of climate change. In three cases, scientists simulated storms without climate change due to greenhouse gases, showing that global warming increased precipitation by 8,9% in Hurricane Maria, 6,3% in Hurricane Irma and 8,7% in Hurricane Katrina.

Hurricane Katrina. Photo: Depositphotos

Maria struck Puerto Rico and other parts of the Caribbean. Irma struck the Caribbean and Florida, while Katrina struck New Orleans and the Gulf Coast.

In the case of Maria, climate warming has concentrated more severe rains in the center of the storm and reduced it on the periphery, said study co-author Michael Vener, a climate scientist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Using examples of 15 storms, including the destructive typhoon Haiyan, powerful Gilbert and Andrew 1992 hurricane of the year, scientists predicted future warming and found that future versions of the same storms would be much more humid and powerful.

“We're starting to see the impact of climate change on tropical cyclones, and that's showing up in precipitation,” said lead study author Cristina Patricola, an atmospheric scientist at the national laboratory.

Although repeating a hurricane in another climate is problematic and cannot take into account certain changes, this work strengthens the scientific understanding of how climate change affects destructive hurricanes, Emanuel said.

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