Atlantic Hurricane Season (Unofficially) Starting Earlier, Study Finds

The National Hurricane Center In Miami monitors the first large storm of the season in the Gulf Of Mexico in 2018
Senior hurricane specialist Stacy Stewart tracks the first tropical storm of the 2018 Atlantic hurricane season at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, Florida on May 24, 2018. Joe Raedle / Getty Images
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Tropical storms are increasingly forming and making landfall before the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season as ocean temperatures warm, a new study published in Nature Communications finds.

The study’s publication comes as NOAA considers moving the official June 1 start date up to May 15.

As reported by The Washington Post:

The start date is one of several attributes of hurricanes that appear to be changing in the face of warming oceans and human-caused climate change. Strong hurricanes are also wandering farther north, and there’s been an uptick in instances of rapid intensification — leading to stronger, wetter and more destructive storms.

For a deeper dive:

The Washington Post, USA TODAY, The Verge, The Wall Street Journal, NBC; Climate Signals background: Hurricanes

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