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Hurricane Melissa’s path through the Caribbean last month was made more violent by climate change, according to a scientific analysis released Thursday. Researchers from the group World Weather Attribution found that the storm had 7 percent stronger wind speeds than a similar one in a world that has not been warmed by the burning of fossil fuels. They also found the rate of rainfall inside the eyewall of the storm was 16 percent more intense. Melissa made landfall as a Category 5 storm in Jamaica on Oct. 28 with wind speeds of 185 miles per hour, collapsing buildings and knocking out internet to most of the island. It continued on to Cuba as a Category 3 storm, forcing hundreds to evacuate, and pummeled Haiti with catastrophic flooding. Dozens of people in hard-hit areas have died. Even a small increase in wind speed can cause substantial damage, said Friederike Otto, one of the group’s founders and a climatologist at Imperial College London. While the economic toll of Melissa is still unfolding, Dr. Otto estimated that the increase in wind speed may have added more than one billion dollars in additional damages. For a country with a small gross domestic product, that is a “huge percentage of the damages,” she said. Since World Weather Attribution was founded in 2014, it has published more than 100 studies that quickly link the impact of global warming to heat waves, drought, wildfires and storms. It has found that other damaging storms, like Hurricane Helene and Milton last year, were more intense and devastating because of climate change. Climate change “absolutely has its ‘finger on the scale,’ but that doesn’t automatically mean all hurricanes will become powerful,” said Brian McNoldy, a senior researcher of atmospheric science at the University of Miami. Rather, an average storm is more likely to encounter factors that help it intensify, he said. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times. Thank you for your patience while we verify access. Already a subscriber? Log in. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
