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Houston Matters

Did Climate Change Affect Our Busy Atlantic Hurricane Season?

We talk with a scientist who works with predictive models for hurricanes: Dr. Shuyi Chen, professor of meteorology at the University of Washington.

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This Monday, Sept. 4, 2017, satellite image provided by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration shows Hurricane Irma nearing the eastern Caribbean. (NOAA via AP)

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With a highly active Atlantic Hurricane Season and a number of major, destructive storms, many are wondering how much our global climate might have had an effect. Though some sources are quick to assert that climate change did, in fact, directly affect our hurricanes, there's still some uncertainty from the scientific community about how accurate that is.

The National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration even stated “It is premature to conclude that human activities – and particularly greenhouse gas emissions that cause global warming – have already had a detectable impact on Atlantic hurricane or global tropical cyclone activity.”

So, to dig into the topic a little deeper, we talk with a scientist who works with predictive models for hurricanes: Dr. Shuyi Chen, professor of meteorology in the Department of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington.