GABY
Favorite Answer
No. Hurricanes are just nature at work. We are not having more, or more powerful ones today than in the past. Katrina just happened to hit an area built below sea level and the damage was amplified because the people disregarded the evacuation orders, and the community was not prepared for the trouble.
amancalledchuda
In a word: No.
So, the next obvious question is: So why does everyone go on about it then?
And the answer to that question is, quite obviously: Because they want you to believe that Katrina does have something to do with global warming.
Here’s why…
The Global Warming Alarmists clearly want us to believe that global warming is going to be a huge catastrophe. Al Gore, for example, makes vast sums of money out of global warming. The more people he can scare onto the bandwagon, the more money he makes.
So, with regard to Katrina, here’s how he does it…
Katrina was a catastrophically destructive hurricane. Previously there had never been more than two category 5 hurricanes in one year and even that was rare. 2005 had *four*. 2005 was also the *hottest year ever*. So, if the hottest year has twice as many hurricanes as ever before, then this is plainly proof-positive that global warming causes more frequent and more destructive hurricanes, therefore, global warming is going to be a catastrophe.
Sounds pretty good, huh? Except, of course, it’s not really a fair representation of the facts.
First, let’s be clear, it is completely true that Category 5 hurricanes are not that common and to have two in one year is pretty rare – so four in one year, as happened in 2005, was remarkable, but was it caused by global warming? Well, was 2005 the “hottest year ever”? It depends on who you listen to. Several well-known and widely-utilised temperature records such as the Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN), HadCRUT3, and MSU Satellite temperature data sets, all show 1998 as the hottest year on record. 1998 only had one category 5 hurricane.
Recently we heard that NASA’s temperature data for the US had an error and that now 1934 is the “hottest year ever”. Of course, this only applies to the US temperatures, but it’s hurricanes near the US that we’re talking about, so how many category 5 hurricanes were there in 1934. You guessed it, none at all.
And what about those rare years where we’ve had 2 category 5 hurricanes? 1960 and 1961, when temperatures were *cooler* than we’re lead to believe they are today. So what does that tell us about higher temperatures causing worse hurricanes?
In fact, there were six category 5 hurricanes in the 1960s, three in the 1970s, three in the 80s and only two in the 90s. So it appears that Category 5 hurricanes are becoming *less* frequent. To be fair, though, we’ve already had seven in the 00s and we’ve still got two and a bit years to go! But this seems to be an anomaly, rather than any trend, and if we have no more (quite possible, we had none in ‘00, ‘01, ‘02, & ’06) then we’ll only have had one more than the 60s.
As previously mentioned Katrina was extremely destructive, but was that because it was the “worst hurricane ever”? Well, it wasn’t the biggest hurricane of 2005, it was only the third biggest. Can you even remember the names of the two that were bigger? (For the record they were Wilma and Rita. The fourth was Emily, but Emily was only a cat 5 for about 6 hours.) In fact, the worst hurricanes (in terms of wind speed) were Allen, in 1980 and Camille, way back in 1969!
Katrina is only remembered because of the damage it caused, but that was simply down to where it made landfall. As has been mentioned above, New Orleans is a city built 6m (about 20 feet) below sea level and its flood defenses were only designed to withstand a category 3 hurricane. It doesn’t take a genius to work out that, if you hit such a city with a category 5 hurricane, it’s going to get flooded.
As ever with Global Warming - don't believe the hype!
Anonymous
Global warming didn't cause Katrina. Hurricanes always happen. The difference is that global warming makes hurricanes which used to be mostly harmless, into deadly storms. It was because of global warming and the heating up of the oceans that made Katrina so devastating that it destroyed so much. And after a hiatus, global warming is going to do it again starting up again in 2009. So just remember you been warned!
annadiana
Nope. I stay in New Orleans, and my domicile (trailer) had 5 ft of water in it, and that i'm nonetheless no longer individually confident that worldwide warming is led to thoroughly by skill of human beings. hurricane Katrina is sometimes stated by way of fact the worst hurricane to ever hit the coast of united states of america, and in terms of economic harm it incredibly is, yet storms like that have happened interior the previous. back whilst my mothers and fathers have been toddlers (like interior the 50's and 60's), Hurricanes Camille and Betsy got here on by using and flooded and broken the section merely as undesirable. particular, 2005 grew to become right into a bad hurricane 3 hundred and sixty 5 days, yet as can been seen 2006 and 2007 have been almost lifeless, so some distance as affecting united states of america. i individually think of that hurricanes are extra unfavorable whilst they have woman names, no longer by way of fact of any worldwide warming. I recommend, different than for Andrew, all the main helpful hurricanes had woman names: Camille, Betsy, Katrina, Rita, Wilma...
Anonymous
Yes and No. No becasue hurricanes are a natural phenomenon. Yes because Katrina was a very deadly hurricane, and that might be because the Gulf was warmer than the years before, therefore causing a stronger storm.