Should we stop calling the 2017 super-hurricanes “natural” disasters?

For meteorologists, the 2017 hurricane season is like a recurring weather nightmare.

And it’s not just the number of hurricanes, or heartbreakingly destructive storm tracks. It’s the extremely rapid intensification that stands out. NOAA’s National Hurricane Center defines rapid intensification as a wind speed increase of at least 35 miles per hour, in 24 hours. Harvey’s winds jumped 45 mph in 24 hours. Irma’s and Jose’s max winds spiked 60 mph in 24 hours.

Now with Maria, we just witnessed one of the fastest hurricane intensification on record. Maria exploded from Category 1 with 85 mph winds, to Category 5 with 155 mph winds, in one day. That’s an incredible wind speed increase of 70 mph in less than 24 hours.

These record setting ‘super-hurricanes’ are exactly what many climate scientists predicted warmer oceans, and more water vapor would create.

MIT climate and hurricane expert Dr. Kerry Emanuel wrote a piece in the Washington Post that says climate change is actually increasing the physical limits of hurricane wind speeds. On this week's Climate Cast, I asked him why he says we should stop calling these climate-enhanced extreme storms natural disasters.

The best climate science on hurricane trends shows little if any increase in the frequency of hurricanes. But Dr. Emanuel and others say we are beginning to see the trend of stronger and wetter hurricanes show up in the data.

It’s really just simple physics: warmer water, and a warmer atmosphere with more water vapor, equals stronger hurricanes.