Devastating Typhoon Gaemi Was Intensified by Climate Change, Study Finds

A devastating typhoon that led to at least 90 combined deaths across the Philippines, Taiwan, Vietnam and China was supercharged by human-caused climate change, a new study has found.

Gaemi, which strengthened into a typhoon on July 22, reached a peak wind speed of around 145 miles per hour, as fast as a category 4 hurricane.

Although the storm didn’t make landfall in the Philippines, it bolstered an ongoing monsoon, triggering at least 45 landslides in the Philippines’ northern islands. It also caused more than 100 cities and municipalities to lose power and damaged hundreds of roads and dozens of bridges.

Climate change is “enhancing conditions conducive to typhoons,” and resulting typhoons are more intense, the report said, adding that of the 6.5 million people affected by the severe conditions, rural communities, the urban poor living closer to the sea and people living on hillsides susceptible to landslides were the most impacted by Gaemi.

The study, which used the Imperial College London’s Storm Model, showed that climate change makes similar storms about 30% more likely and that maximum wind speeds in those storms are now about 7% faster.

The study was published by World Weather Attribution (WWA,) a group of scientists dedicated to determining how climate change impacts the severity and likelihood of natural disasters.

“Fossil fuel-driven warming is ushering in a new era of bigger, deadlier typhoons,” Ben Clarke, a research assistant in the Analysis and Interpretation of Climate Data for Extreme Weather at the Imperial College London and member of the WWA, told The Guardian. “The hard truth is we will see more devastating storms like Typhoon Gaemi as the climate warms [and] Asia will become an increasingly dangerous place to live until fossil fuels are replaced with renewable energy.”

Typhoons are caused when strong enough winds blow into warm waters, and the team said that the sweltering sea surface temperatures recorded in July, which represent a warming of about 1°C, were “almost impossible” without the influence of climate change. “If global warming reaches 2°C, sea surface temperatures are projected to be another 0.6°C warmer, and the conditions associated with Typhoon Gaemi will continue to increase in likelihood by a further factor of about 10.” 

Sea surface temperatures have seen record highs this year, as 2024 is projected to be the hottest year ever recorded.

“As we continue to confront the realities of climate change, the challenge before us is becoming increasingly daunting. We’re now witnessing rainfall events so extreme that they surpass the capacities of some of our current systems,” Maja Vahlberg, a climate risk consultant for the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre, told The Guardian. “We have the knowledge, and now we must muster the will to act. The future and safety of millions depends on the decisions that we make today.”