Two Huge Hurricanes

The 2024 hurricane season has been devastating. In late September, Hurricane Helene hit Florida, and then traveled inland across Georgia and North Carolina. The Category 4 storm was the strongest and deadliest hurricane ever to hit the region. Record rainfall led to flooding that destroyed countless homes. Entire towns were washed away by deadly mudslides. More than 300 people died, and hundreds are still missing. 

Just two weeks later, another monster storm, Hurricane Milton, made landfall on the Gulf Coast of Florida. The area was still reeling from the damage caused by Helene. Thousands evacuated as the Category 3 storm tore through the state, bringing tornadoes, strong winds, and heavy rainfall. Hurricane Milton left at least 14 people dead and millions without power.

These back-to-back storms hint at a scary reality, one that climate scientists have been dreading for decades. Climate change is causing hurricanes to grow more frequent and intense. And these extreme storms aren’t going away.

A hurricane is a type of spinning storm that forms over the ocean. Its swirling winds are fueled by the warm ocean water below. Warmer ocean temperatures create bigger, stronger storms. And the Atlantic Ocean had very warm years in 2023 and 2024, says Gabriel Vecchi, an Earth and climate scientist at Princeton University in New Jersey. This created the perfect “ingredients for hurricane development,” says Vecchi.

Hurricanes that form when there are warmer waters are more damaging. They hold more water, leading to heavier rainfall and more flooding. They have stronger winds, which can damage buildings, knock down trees, or push water to higher ground as a storm surge. They can also spawn tornadoes, which happened during Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton.

These recent storms demonstrate that hurricanes can be dangerous even to areas far from the coast. One of the hardest-hit places during Helene was Asheville, North Carolina—a city about 322 kilometers (200 miles) away from the ocean. More than 100 people died in this region alone.

Florida, which was hit by both storms, will likely take months—if not years—to recover from the damage. And as average global temperatures continue to rise because of climate change, multiple extreme storms in a season will only become more common.

Scientists like Vecchi are studying hurricanes so we can better predict these dangerous storms. In the meantime, he says, communities will need to adapt by designing buildings, roads, and bridges that can withstand threats like flooding. Towns and cities can also use energy sources that are less dependent on fossil fuels, like oil, gas, and coal. Burning fossil fuels generates the heat-trapping greenhouse gases that cause climate change and lead to warmer ocean waters and worse storms. “There are a lot of things that we can do to create real solutions,” says Vecchi.