“This trend in sea surface temperature that's sort of relentlessly rising and the hurricane intensity that's relentlessly rising (means that) it's with some confidence we can say that these two things are connected and that there's probably a substantial contribution from greenhouse warming.”
“[There has been no overall increase in the number of tropical storms over the past three decades, but] Category 4 and 5 hurricanes are making up a larger share of the total number of hurricanes, ... made up about 20 percent of all hurricanes in the 1970s, but over the last decade they account for about 35 percent of these storms.”
“Category 4 and 5 storms are also making up a larger share of the total number of hurricanes. Category 4 and 5 hurricanes made up about 20% of all hurricanes in the 1970s, but over the last decade they accounted for about 35% of these storms.”
“Sea surface temperature is the one that consistently comes up. What we found is that all the variables have an effect, but those tend to be on a storm-by- storm basis and not over a longer period.”