We’ll be Seeing More Hurricanes like Ian

If you’ve been watching a national weather channel any time in late September, you’ve most likely caught wind of the monstrous Category 4 hurricane Ian. Rapidly intensifying at its point of origin, Ian blew through the Caribbean into the Gulf of Mexico and soon made landfall on Cuba, knocking out power before turning its eye to Florida.

With the information provided by NOAA in their article “Hurricane Ian’s Path of Destruction”, a clear timeline was given on how this destructive typhoon formed and its journey through the ocean to land. Hurricanes first start off as a tropical depression, caused by moist, warm air rising over ocean water, forming a low pressure area. The surrounding air flows in to fill the space and a circular moving center forms. When winds begin to spin over 38 mph, a tropical storm is formed.

Ian reached this status first on the 23rd of September, quickly gaining strength and breaking the 96 mph barrier to be classified as a Category 2 hurricane on the 26th, with max wind speed capping at 105 mph. Ian quickly began to gather up more strength, reaching 115 mph in max sustained winds in the night leading into the 27th of September, earning it a place in Category 3. Ready to roll, Ian made its debut near La Coloma in Cuba, completely knocking out the country’s power grid. On September 28th, Ian strengthened further to a Category 4 hurricane over the Gulf of Mexico, just before landing near Cayo Costa, Florida. It brought maximum winds of 150 mph, just 7 mph shy of a massive Category 5, with NOAA reporting intense storm surges of 12 to 18 feet high above ground level.

Ian quickly let off the gas pedal once it was over the Florida peninsula, weakening to a tropical storm on the 29th. When faced with a lack of warm ocean air, hurricanes die down, as that is their main fuel source. However, the rain Ian brought in still became a big issue, with “...Lake Wales, in central Florida, reported nearly 17 inches of rain within 24 hours.” as was recorded by NOAA. This would be about the time most people would expect a hurricane to fizzle out, but not Ian. Crossing once more into the water, Ian built up enough wind speed to be classified as a Category 1, turning once more to the U.S. coast and hitting South Carolina, bringing in flooding, winds, and power outages. Ian finally dissipated over Virginia on October 1st, having far overstayed its welcome.

Ian caused an insane amount of destruction, even for a hurricane. In Florida alone, 1.05 million people were left without power, according to ABC News in its article “Hurricane Ian updates: Florida death toll climbs”. The death toll in Florida is at least 72, and those are the people who were either able to be found or accounted for. Nearly 1,100 people needed to be rescued from flooded areas, including a nursing home that had to be evacuated. The damage left behind cost over $60 billion in insured damages in Florida alone, according to the Washington Post article “What made Hurricane Ian so intense: By the numbers” by Ian Livingston. This falls just shy of Katrina’s massive $89.7 billion in insured damages, putting into perspective the fearsome power of the storm.

One of the worst parts about the storm is the trend it’s a part of. “Over the past six seasons, six hurricanes at Category 4 or higher have hit the continental United States…” Livingston writes. The list includes Harvey and Irma in 2017, Micheal in 2018, Laura in 2020, Ida in 2021, and now Ian in 2022. The surrounding areas have gotten off no lighter, with Puerto Rico being hit by Category 4 Maria in 2017, and Category 5 Irma laying waste to nearby islands. Category 5 Dorian hit the Bahamas, while Eta and Jota flooded Nicaragua in 2020. All of these hurricanes experienced the phenomenon called “rapid intensification”, in which a hurricane gains speed of at least 35 mph within 24 hours. This is another byproduct of climate change, as Livingston notes that “Scientists expect that rapid intensification events… will increase due to warming ocean waters associated with climate change.”. There is no doubt that more intense storms will be thrown against our coastal areas as our oceans warm, causing more chaos and disruption to those who live in hurricane-prone areas.