Hurricane Season Could Renew Global Warming Debate

If hurricanes again pound the United States this summer, their roar is likely to be accompanied by the din of another storm — an angry debate among U.S. scientists over the impact of global warming.

Last season’s $45 billion devastation, when 15 tropical storms spawned nine hurricanes in the Atlantic and Caribbean, prompted climatologists to warn of a link to warming temperatures.

But hurricane experts say the unusual series of hurricanes, four of which slammed into Florida in a six-week period, was the result of a natural 15- to 40-year cycle in Atlantic cyclone activity.
Reuters