The numbers of hurricanes and cyclones have remained stable.
The number of tropical cyclones has not increased due to climate change, but the power of the most severe storms has increased.
The news agency AFP has summarized the information on tropical cyclones, i.e. hurricanes, typhoons and cyclones, from international climate information services.
The data shows that since 1980, the number of hurricanes has remained fairly stable on Earth. On average, there have been 47 each year.
The wind speeds of the storms have increased instead. In the years 1981–2010, the maximum wind speed of hurricanes was on average 50.5 meters per second. In the last decade it was already 53 m/s.
In the first review period, ten of the hundred hurricanes rose to the highest, i.e. 5th degree. At that time, their wind speed exceeds 70 m/s. In the last review period, there were already 14 out of 100 category 5 tropical cyclones. So this is a 40 percent increase.
This year there have been 42 tropical cyclones, 19 of which have hit land. The strongest storm this year was Hurricane Milton, which raged in the United States in October, and the maximum wind was measured at a whopping 77 m/s.
Source: AFP