Skip to main content
OSTI.GOVU.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

Hurricane Harvey Links to Ocean Heat Content and Climate Change Adaptation

Journal Article · · Earth's Future
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2018EF000825· OSTI ID:1438298
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [1];  [1]
  1. National Center for Atmospheric Research Boulder CO USA
  2. International Center for Climate and Environment Sciences, Institute of Atmospheric Physics Chinese Academy of Sciences Beijing China
  3. Department of Environmental Science &, Policy George Mason University Fairfax VA USA
+ Show Author Affiliations
Abstract

While hurricanes occur naturally, human‐caused climate change is supercharging them and exacerbating the risk of major damage. Here using ocean and atmosphere observations, we demonstrate links between increased upper ocean heat content due to global warming with the extreme rainfalls from recent hurricanes. Hurricane Harvey provides an excellent case study as it was isolated in space and time. We show that prior to the beginning of northern summer of 2017, ocean heat content was the highest on record both globally and in the Gulf of Mexico, but the latter sharply decreased with hurricane Harvey via ocean evaporative cooling. The lost ocean heat was realized in the atmosphere as moisture, and then as latent heat in record‐breaking heavy rainfalls. Accordingly, record high ocean heat values not only increased the fuel available to sustain and intensify Harvey but also increased its flooding rains on land. Harvey could not have produced so much rain without human‐induced climate change. Results have implications for the role of hurricanes in climate. Proactive planning for the consequences of human‐caused climate change is not happening in many vulnerable areas, making the disasters much worse.

Research Organization:
Univ. Corp. for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0012711
OSTI ID:
1438298
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1508280
OSTI ID: 1438299
Journal Information:
Earth's Future, Journal Name: Earth's Future Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 6; ISSN 2328-4277
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (64)

Estimates of net heat fluxes over the Atlantic Ocean: NET HEAT FLUXES OVER THE ATLANTIC OCEAN journal January 2014
Cyclone-cyclone interactions through the ocean pathway journal October 2014
Climate variability and relationships between top-of-atmosphere radiation and temperatures on Earth: VARIATIONS IN TEMPERATURES AND RADIATION journal May 2015
Atlantic meridional heat transports computed from balancing Earth's energy locally journal February 2017
Attributable Human-Induced Changes in the Likelihood and Magnitude of the Observed Extreme Precipitation during Hurricane Harvey: CHANGES IN EXTREME PRECIPITATION IN TX journal December 2017
The ERA-Interim reanalysis: configuration and performance of the data assimilation system journal April 2011
Trends and variability in column-integrated atmospheric water vapor journal March 2005
Dealing with hurricane surge flooding in a changing environment: part I. Risk assessment considering storm climatology change, sea level rise, and coastal development journal February 2017
GPCC's new land surface precipitation climatology based on quality-controlled in situ data and its role in quantifying the global water cycle journal March 2013
Global analyses of sea surface temperature, sea ice, and night marine air temperature since the late nineteenth century journal January 2003
Atlantic hurricane trends linked to climate change journal January 2006
Upper-ocean response to Hurricane Ivan in a 1/25° nested Gulf of Mexico HYCOM journal January 2007
Water and energy budgets of hurricanes: Case studies of Ivan and Katrina journal January 2007
Water and energy budgets of hurricanes and implications for climate change journal January 2007
Energy budgets of Atlantic hurricanes and changes from 1970: ATLANTIC HURRICANES AND CLIMATE CHANGE journal September 2008
Warm ocean anomaly, air sea fluxes, and the rapid intensification of tropical cyclone Nargis (2008): WARM OCEAN ANOMALY AND CYCLONE NARGIS journal February 2009
Improving the global precipitation record: GPCP Version 2.1 journal January 2009
Seasonal Atlantic tropical cyclone hindcasting/forecasting using two sea surface temperature datasets: ATLANTIC TROPICAL CYCLONE SIMULATIONS journal January 2010
The remarkable predictability of inter-annual variability of Atlantic hurricanes during the past decade: TC SEASONAL PREDICTION WITH GFDL HiRAM journal June 2011
Upper ocean response to Hurricane Gilbert journal January 1992
Increasing destructiveness of tropical cyclones over the past 30 years journal July 2005
Observational evidence for an ocean heat pump induced by tropical cyclones journal May 2007
Effect of remote sea surface temperature change on tropical cyclone potential intensity journal December 2007
Global trends in tropical cyclone risk journal February 2012
Risk management and climate change journal March 2013
An imperative to monitor Earth's energy imbalance journal January 2016
Tropical cyclones and climate change journal February 2010
Downscaling CMIP5 climate models shows increased tropical cyclone activity over the 21st century journal July 2013
Impact of climate change on New York City’s coastal flood hazard: Increasing flood heights from the preindustrial to 2300 CE journal October 2017
Assessing the present and future probability of Hurricane Harvey’s rainfall journal November 2017
Attribution of extreme rainfall from Hurricane Harvey, August 2017 journal December 2017
Quantitative attribution of climate effects on Hurricane Harvey’s extreme rainfall in Texas journal April 2018
Improved estimates of ocean heat content from 1960 to 2015 journal March 2017
CLIMATE: Uncertainty in Hurricanes and Global Warming journal June 2005
Cuba's 100-year plan for climate change journal January 2018
Human influence on tropical cyclone intensity journal July 2016
Improving Societal Outcomes of Extreme Weather in a Changing Climate: An Integrated Perspective journal November 2011
T ROPICAL C YCLONES journal May 2003
The Effects on a Tropical Cyclone of Cooler Surface Waters Due to Upwelling and Mixing Produced by a Prior Tropical Cyclone journal October 1971
Upper Ocean Response to a Hurricane journal February 1981
Environmental Factors Affecting Tropical Cyclone Power Dissipation journal November 2007
Toward Optimal Closure of the Earth's Top-of-Atmosphere Radiation Budget journal February 2009
Upper-Ocean Thermal Structure and the Western North Pacific Category 5 Typhoons. Part I: Ocean Features and the Category 5 Typhoons’ Intensification journal September 2008
Observational Evidence for Oceanic Controls on Hurricane Intensity journal February 2011
Statistical–Dynamical Predictions of Seasonal North Atlantic Hurricane Activity journal April 2011
Atmospheric Moisture Transports from Ocean to Land and Global Energy Flows in Reanalyses journal September 2011
The Changing Character of Precipitation journal September 2003
North American Regional Reanalysis journal March 2006
Objectively Analyzed Air–Sea Heat Fluxes for the Global Ice-Free Oceans (1981–2005) journal April 2007
Hurricanes and Climate: The U.S. CLIVAR Working Group on Hurricanes journal June 2015
Rewriting the Tropical Record Books: The Extraordinary Intensification of Hurricane Patricia (2015) journal October 2017
North Atlantic Power Dissipation Index (PDI) and Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE): Statistical Modeling and Sensitivity to Sea Surface Temperature Changes journal January 2012
Spatial and Temporal Characterization of Sea Surface Temperature Response to Tropical Cyclones journal June 2013
Regional Energy and Water Cycles: Transports from Ocean to Land journal October 2013
Earth’s Energy Imbalance journal May 2014
Global Projections of Intense Tropical Cyclone Activity for the Late Twenty-First Century from Dynamical Downscaling of CMIP5/RCP4.5 Scenarios journal September 2015
Effect of Upper-Ocean Evolution on Projected Trends in Tropical Cyclone Activity journal October 2015
Response of Tropical Cyclone Activity and Structure to Global Warming in a High-Resolution Global Nonhydrostatic Model journal December 2017
Leading Tropical Modes Associated with Interannual and Multidecadal Fluctuations in North Atlantic Hurricane Activity journal February 2006
Hurricane Eyewall Replacement Cycle Thermodynamics and the Relict Inner Eyewall Circulation journal December 2012
Enthalpy and Momentum Fluxes during Hurricane Earl Relative to Underlying Ocean Features journal January 2015
Disaster Mitigation and Insurance: Learning from Katrina journal March 2006
The Impact of a Warm Ocean Eddy on Typhoon Morakot (2009): A Preliminary Study from Satellite Observations and Numerical Modelling journal January 2011
Global representation of tropical cyclone-induced short-term ocean thermal changes using Argo data journal January 2015

Similar Records

Attributable Human-Induced Changes in the Likelihood and Magnitude of the Observed Extreme Precipitation during Hurricane Harvey
Journal Article · Wed Dec 27 19:00:00 EST 2017 · Geophysical Research Letters · OSTI ID:1425431

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
adaptation
climate change
extreme events
hurricane
ocean heat content
rainfall