Warming oceans are supercharging the storms we are used to seeing

UNH Today has an essay (here it is) telling what most Granite Geek readers already know, but it’s a good reminder:

“The same thing that’s happening to hurricanes is happening to nor’easters – warmer ocean temps are pumping more heat and water into the storms, so they are getting bigger, wind speeds are getting stronger and they’re producing more precipitation,” Stampone says. “As winters warm, nor’easters can pack everything under the sun – you can get blizzard conditions, you can get ice storms, you can get heavy flooding rain, and a little farther south you can get thunderstorms that produce tornadoes. The stronger they get, the more of that they are going to bring.”.

I’m mostly preaching to the choir here but happily, this ran in the Union-Leader. That gives it a chance to reach an audience that doesn’t want to hear the bad climate news.