If you believe former Vice President Al Gore, global warming is morphing science fiction into reality. In his exclusive interview with the Post’s Ezra Klein published Wednesday, Gore says (bold text indicates my added emphasis):
The extreme events are more extreme. The hurricane scale used to be 1-5 and now they’re adding a 6. The fingerprint of man-made global warming is all over these storms and extreme weather events.
But Gore’s statement about this new breed of hurricanes is patently false. There’s no new hurricane category in the works.
Just to be sure, I contacted Chris Vaccaro, director of the National Weather Service’s office of public affairs, and asked him whether the National Hurricane Center is about to unveil the doomsday Category 6. In less than 10 minutes, he fired back this response:
No, we’re not pursuing any such change. I’m also not sure who VP Gore means by “they.” I’d also point out that the top rating, Category 5, has no ceiling: it includes hurricanes with top sustained winds of 157mph and higher
Generally, Gore’s characterization of the links between global warming and hurricane intensity is a bit fast and loose.
Whereas Gore tells Klein hurricanes are “stronger now” due to manmade warming, the freshly leaked United Nations climate assessment is much more equivocal. Although the assessment says hurricane activity has become more intense in the Atlantic since 1970, there is “low confidence” of a human contribution.
Hurricane Carol hit the New England on August 31,1954. It was followed by Hurricane Edna ten days later. Both were category 3 hurricanes Carol produced 68 deaths and Edna contributed another 20. Just for Al Gore's information Hurricane Edna remains the costliest hurricane for the state of Maine. Likewise Hurricane Sandy was a category 3 storm not a category 6 super storm as Gore and his fellow travelers would have you believe.
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