Hurricane Hype Busted: Data Disproves Climate Supercharging Claims

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Irrational Fear Substack

Fewer deaths, less energy: the inconvenient truths about hurricanes
Dr. Matthew Wielicki
Oct 11, 2024

The mainstream media (MSM) has long amplified the narrative that hurricanes are becoming more powerful and more frequent due to climate change, fueled by rising sea surface temperatures. Recent headlines have linked storms like Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton directly to global warming. For example, CNN reported that Helene’s rainfall was increased by up to 500X due to climate change.

Meanwhile, NPR reports that storms like Helene and Milton are “supercharged” by climate change, intensifying their destructive power.

 

These claims support a broader alarmist agenda that climate change is driving a dramatic increase in hurricane frequency and intensity, making them deadlier than ever before. But the actual data tells a very different story.

The Decline in Hurricane and Cyclone Deaths

 

One of the most significant but often overlooked aspects of modern hurricane activity is the remarkable decrease in deaths associated with these storms, despite the media’s fixation on their supposed increasing intensity. If climate change were truly causing more destructive and deadly hurricanes, we would expect to see an increase in fatalities. Yet, the opposite is true. According to the Wikipedia list of the deadliest tropical cyclones over time, the vast majority of the deadliest storms occurred in the early and mid-20th century, long before global warming became a prevalent concern.

For instance, the 1970 Bhola Cyclone claimed between 300,000 to 500,000 lives in Bangladesh. Compare this to modern hurricanes: the technological advances in forecasting, infrastructure, and emergency response have led to a significant reduction in deaths. The media fixation on extreme events ignores the fact that human resilience has outpaced the supposed climate risks. Improved preparation and infrastructure mean that today, we’re better equipped than ever to handle hurricanes, even as their frequency and intensity fluctuate.

This decline in fatalities further undermines the media’s alarmist narrative, showing that humans are not more vulnerable to these storms than before, in fact, we’re better prepared than ever.

Why Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) is a Strong Metric for Understanding Hurricane Trends

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