Devastating tropical cyclones could hit New York and impact MILLIONS if temperatures rise, experts claim

TROPICAL cyclone storms could hit cities like New York, Beijing and Tokyo if climate change results in temperature rises, a new study claims. These are all mid-latitude cities that don’t usually experience tropical cyclones because they generally form over seas located in lower latitudes. The storms require warm sea surface levels to form as well […]

TROPICAL cyclone storms could hit cities like New York, Beijing and Tokyo if climate change results in temperature rises, a new study claims.

These are all mid-latitude cities that don’t usually experience tropical cyclones because they generally form over seas located in lower latitudes.

AFP

Tropical Cyclone Phailin resulted in half a million people being evacuated by Indian officials in 2013[/caption]

The storms require warm sea surface levels to form as well as low-level winds.

During a recent study, Yale University-led experts found that tropical cyclones could start forming over a wider range of areas by 2100.

This is because they think global warming could reduce the temperature difference between the equator and the poles.

If they’re correct, we could start seeing extreme tropical weather in unusual locations.

The study suggested that rising temperatures would put millions of people in the reach of devastating cyclones and hurricanes.

The research was inspired by subtropical storm Alpha, which is said to be the first ever cyclone to impact mainland Portugal.

Dr Studholme told the BBC: “We hadn’t observed this before.

“You had a traditional kind of mid-latitude storm, that […] in its decay, the right conditions for a tropical cyclone to form occurred.

“That hadn’t happened to Portugal before.”

The study wasn’t all bad news though.

According to the researchers, if we drastically reduce carbon emissions in the next decade we could stop tropical cyclones forming near mid-latitude countries.

Their full findings have been published in the journal Nature Geoscience.

The US may be avoiding tropical cyclones at the moment but it does get hit by around 1,500 tornadoes a year, on average.

The Sun previously spoke with William A. Gallus, Jr., a professor of meteorology at Iowa State University, about worst case tornado scenarios.

He said: “Probably the worst-case scenario is to have a maximum strength tornado, EF5 rating on the Enhanced Fujita Scale, move through a large densely-populated city, like Chicago, perhaps at rush hour when traffic is moving slowly.

“At least one prior study suggested the death toll in such an event could be many thousands of people, and damage would likely be over ten billion dollars.”

Hurricanes, cyclones and typhoons are names for the same weather phenomenon.

The difference between them is the location they occur in.

A tornado is different in the sense that it is a violent twisted vortex of high-speed wind.

A hurricane/cyclone needs the perfect combination of high pressure and low pressure zones, high speed winds and heavy rain.

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