The brutal wind and torrential rainfall of Hurricane Milton that killed 16 people in Florida this week were worsened by human-caused climate change, a team of international scientists said on Friday.
Global warming made wind speeds around 10 per cent stronger and rainfall greater by between 20pc and 30pc, according to an analysis by World Weather Attribution. The group of climate scientists studies the role of climate change in fuelling extreme weather.
Milton intensified from a Category 1 storm into a tempestuous Category 5 in less than 24 hours, feeding off record- and near-record-warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico. It made landfall in Florida as a Category 3 hurricane.
Previous scientific analyses have shown climate change has made such temperatures in the Gulf between 400 and 800 times more likely.
This extra heat made Milton the third-fastest intensifying Atlantic hurricane on record, the US National Hurricane Centre said, with maximum sustained wind speeds reaching 180 mph (290 kph).
The scientist group noted that rainfall storms similar to Milton are now about twice as likely as they would be without human-induced warming.
“This study has confirmed what should already be abundantly clear: climate change is supercharging storms, and burning fossil fuels is to blame,” said Ian Duff, a campaigner at environmental nonprofit Greenpeace.
