We are almost a month into hurricane season and it has already been active. While hurricanes usually tear through the tropics, tropical cyclones can also affect our region like what happened in 2011 with Tropical Storm Irene. One driver of these storms is the abnormally warm ocean temperatures which are bubbling up just off the coast of Africa and into the central Atlantic early this season.

That warmer water has helped along two named storms as of late, but many are fearing what hurricane seasons could like in 20 to 30 years due to climate change. Scientists believe that we could see a decrease in the number of storms during hurricane season due to the increasing wind shear that comes with climate change. The frequency of storms is still an active discussion among scientists, but research shows the storms that do form are going to be more intense and costly.