Nor’easters slamming New England are growing more powerful

The strongest of the famous winding of New England known as Nor’easters has become even stronger since the 1940s, threatening to do more damage to the northeast coast. This is probably due to the warmer ocean temperatures.

“We know what causes warming the temperature of the sea surface: the emission of greenhouse gases. And it is this increase that stimulates the trend, ”explains Michael Mann at the University of Pennsylvania.

Mann and his colleagues have assembled a set of data from Nor’easters and their winding paths in the past 85 years. They used a statistical method to identify all the trends in the maximum wind speed of storms, as well as any change in precipitation.

“What we have found is that, although we could not isolate any significant tendency in the average intensity of these storms, we found that the strongest of these storms are more formed,” explains Mann.

This dynamic occurs because of the way in which the temperatures of the ocean which feed storms interact with other factors, such as the shear of the wind, to decide their ultimate intensity, he says. The lower storms are more likely to be influenced by factors other than the temperature of the ocean, which determine the maximum potential intensity of a storm. “The biggest storms, to be a little anthropomorphic here, have the opportunity to reach their potential,” explains Mann.

While the hurricanes of tropical latitudes were known to behave in this way, it was less clear how much the more complex Niasters would respond to warmer temperatures. “Nor’easters, unlike hurricanes, draw their energy from many other factors,” said Brian Tang at the University of Albany in New York State.

The upward trend of intensity and precipitation is low – the speed change of the wind of the strongest storms is just under 2 meters per second since 1940. But this can still affect the damage that the Nor’sserrs does.

The wave of storms, combined with elevation of sea level, causes floods along the coast and more snow and rain stimulate interior floods. “I think the great danger is water,” says Tang.