The Natural Catastrophes that hit the world this year were no coincidence.

The increase of heat in the atmosphere known as global warming has been a topic for many years. Scientists have long anticipated that climate change would create more airborne vapor, fueling what might be called “vapor storms” that are unleashing more rain and snow than storms did only a few decades ago. Catastrophes such as Hurricane Ida, the flooding of China’s Henan province or the flooding of south Germany this year arise from this phenomenon and hence affect us all as they result in deadly incidences.

The Scientific American published a map called “Wetter World” depicting global distribution fo water vapor. This shows that the most water vapor is present along the equator given to the tropical moisture. A graph of the vapor development shows that the increase in the recent years is concerning in comparison to 2010.

What is unsettling the most according to Scientific American is the rapid intensification of tropical storms by the atmospheric water vapor. Storms rapidly intensify when either the maximum wind speed increases 35 miles per hour in 24 hours or the central atmospheric pressure of the storm drops at least 42 millibars in 24 hours. This said, data from the last 40 years show that the probability of a storm rapidly intensifying has quintupled. There are ten examples of Atlantic hurricanes that did just that in 2020: Hanna, Laura, Sally, Teddy, Gamma, Delta, Epsilon, Zeta, Eta and Iota. Overall, recent studies show that rapid intensification is more likely when oceans warm which causes more water to evaporate and deliver more heat to the atmosphere. As stated by the Scientific American, Oceans absorb around 90 percent of the heat trapped by extra greenhouse gases we humans have emitted to the atmosphere. With this, comes a raise of water temperatures which acts like a powerful battery that storms can draw energy from.