A new U.S. study said that the global warming may decrease the number of hurricanes that landfall in the United States, media reported Wednesday.
Study author Chunzai Wang, a research oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Miami Lab, based the study on observations instead of computer models and records of landfall hurricanes through more than 100 years.
He found that the warming water may increased vertical wind shear -- a change in wind speed or direction that can make it hard for hurricanes to form, strengthen and stay alive-- in the Atlantic Ocean near the United States.
Wang said that winds forming over the Pacific and Indian oceans have global effects, much like El Nino does.
There has been a contentious debate over how the global warming may affect the intensity and number of hurricanes.
Scientists on the other side criticized that the number of hurricanes hitting land is not a reliable record for how hurricanes had changed because at times only one in 10 North Atlantic hurricanes hit the U.S. coast and the data reflects only a small percentage of storms around the globe.
The Nobel Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said it's "more likely than not" that man-made global warming has already increased the frequency of the most intense storms.
Former National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield said regardless of which side turns out to be right, it only takes one storm to be deadly. So the key for residents of hurricane-prone areas is to be prepared for a storm "no matter what."
Source:Xinhua/Agencies
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