Is it possible to predict hurricane impacts? essay sample

 

 

Though meteorology and oceanology have made a great progress for the last decades, predicting hurricanes and their intensity is still tough. Climatologists warn that climate change makes hurricanes even tougher to predict with every year. Hurricane Harvey was close to confirming these hypotheses. Even with a lot of warning, the effects were devastating. The mechanism is simple – warming water gives more power to the storm as the planet heats up. Climate change does not directly cause the hurricanes but it can actually turn quite a small tropical storm in a natural disaster.

 

The devastation caused by the hurricane is easier to predict than the hurricane itself, but it does not simplify the task for anyone. We can rescue people but we cannot protect property in the face of the coming storm. In the hurricane Katrina, billions of dollars were lost as infrastructure, private houses, and public buildings. Despite most people were evacuated in time, it was impossible to save 80% of New Orleans submerged in water. The same destiny awaits every city on the way of a major hurricane. Strengthening fortifications and levees might help, but it must be completed long before the hurricane arrives.