Hurricane Ida, which reached wind speeds of 240 kilometres per hour, killed at least one person and left more than a million people without power, was almost certainly made worse because of climate change, say scientists.
The category 4 storm intensified rapidly over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico before making landfall in Louisiana on Sunday, 16 years to the day that Hurricane Katrina 鈥� a category 3 storm 鈥� devastated the state.
US president Joe Biden reporters that one person had been killed, and more deaths were likely.
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Studies that link extreme weather events like Ida to climate change聽take time, but has already connected global warming with the heavy rainfall of 2017鈥檚 Hurricane Harvey.
Tropical storms such as Ida are fuelled by the evaporation of sea water. August is already warm in the Gulf of Mexico, and the ocean鈥檚 surface there .
鈥淸Ida] moved over part of the Gulf of Mexico where the sea surface was really warm, so that was why it rapidly intensified. That patch of warm ocean really matters,鈥� says at the University of Reading, UK. Research over the past two decades is beginning to pinpoint the conditions needed for such rapid intensification, and this includes higher ocean surface temperature, says Baker.
He says it is fair to draw a likely link between Ida鈥檚 strength and climate change. 鈥淵ou probably can say that climate change made it more likely that part of the Gulf of Mexico was warmer, and so some of the intensity of Ida might be down to climate change. How much is difficult to quantify,鈥� he says.
鈥淐limate change didn鈥檛 cause Hurricane Ida,鈥� said at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, . 鈥淏ut it鈥檚 virtually certain it made it worse.鈥�
Significant investment in infrastructure since 2005, including upgraded levees, have helped Louisiana escape some of the economic damage that resulted from Hurricane Katrina, which exceeded $160 billion. Nevertheless, preliminary estimates by insurance analysts Wells Fargo & Co in San Francisco, California, still suggest that Ida may cost insurers $15 billion.
Ida has disrupted the region鈥檚 oil industry and left , including New Orleans, once again highlighting the vulnerability of US energy grids to extreme weather. Texas鈥檚 isolated electricity grid left millions without power .
The US government鈥檚 National Hurricane Center Ida will continue to cause heavy rainfall today in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, which could result in serious flooding.
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