AccuWeather Forecasting Senior Director Dan DePodwin and AccuWeather Climate Expert Brett Anderson discuss the top headlines related to climate change in the May 23 edition of Climate In The News.
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00:00Today we're covering two climate stories with hurricane season starting June 1st.
00:05We'll begin with how climate change is expected to increase the amount of wind damage from hurricanes
00:10and then turn to the Chesapeake Bay and the increase in marine heat waves.
00:14Brett, our first analysis study from the Society for Risk Analysis looked at hurricanes
00:20and how climate change is expected to increase the amount of wind damage
00:24and then the insured losses from wind damage across the southeastern U.S.
00:28That's right. Hurricane winds are responsible for about 40% of total losses
00:34and then you also have to factor in storm surge and heavy rainfall as well with that
00:39but about 40% which is a significant number.
00:42Now what the prediction is over the next half century to at the end of the century here
00:47is an increase of up to 76% of damage of losses due to wind by 2060
00:55and as much as 100% this is a worst case scenario by 2100.
01:00That's a significant increase obviously in the amount of wind damage that could be caused by storms.
01:03What areas of the southeast are or do we expect to be most impacted from the increase in wind damage?
01:09Yeah, the study focused on Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi and specifically Texas
01:15where projections are we could see an increase in 14% of losses due to wind by the 2050s.
01:23So this is obviously due to the likelihood of more intense hurricanes, maybe not more frequent storms
01:27but more intense hurricanes and what other reasons behind this finding?
01:30People moving into more riskier areas, low-lying areas.
01:34We're seeing obviously a continued trend of people moving from the northeast, midwest,
01:38down to the south into these higher risk areas.
01:41So from the hurricanes, which obviously need water to be fueled, we'll turn to the water itself here in the Chesapeake Bay
01:47from this story from the University of Maryland, Maryland Today,
01:51using satellite data to track the temperature of Chesapeake Bay
01:55and to understand how marine heat waves work in the Chesapeake,
01:59which are very important to understand the ecosystem of the bay.
02:01Yeah, we've talked about marine heat waves over the oceans.
02:04We've had several across the Pacific and Atlantic.
02:07Now we're really narrowing into a much smaller area of the Chesapeake Bay,
02:11which is a critical waterway, obviously, for fishing and marine life.
02:15And what we've seen here, on average, they have about 25 marine heat wave days annually.
02:22And over the past 20 years, we've seen a 10% increase in those days,
02:26which is equal to about two to four additional marine heat waves per year, which is a big deal.
02:30Yeah, certainly an increase in heat waves that has a pretty wide-raging impact,
02:34I would think, on the ecosystem of the bay.
02:36Yeah, absolutely.
02:37If we get a marine heat wave, what was stated, late spring when there's fish that are spawning,
02:43it can have a huge impact on the population and, therefore, fishing as well and everything.
02:47And this is a really unique use of satellite data.
02:50They also found differences between the lower and upper parts of the bay.
02:53That's right.
02:54The lower bay, fewer heat waves, but they tend to last longer.
02:57Upper bay, which is, of course, as you head up towards the Baltimore area,
03:01more frequent heat waves, but they're shorter duration.
03:04Yeah, again, a very interesting use of satellite data,
03:06not just to look at satellites, perhaps, on the evening news or here on the AccuWeather Network,
03:10but also to track sea surface temperatures, in this case, in the Chesapeake Bay.
03:14Thank you, Brett, for that insight.
03:15For other stories about climate, you can find that at accuweather.com slash climate.