El Hurricane Lorenzo It occurred in September 2019 and was located at 45 degrees west longitude. It reached the westernmost coasts of Europe on a path that ended at the northern tip of the British Isles. It was a particularly striking hurricane, considering it was one of the first such phenomena to occur in this part of the world. It is the most powerful hurricane to appear near Spain since records began. Therefore, we are going to dedicate this article to summarizing all the characteristics of Hurricane Lorenzo and whether we will see anything like this happen again in the future.
Climate change and hurricanes
We know that the consequences of climate change are an increase in the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events such as droughts and floods. In this case, what mainly affects the generation of hurricanes has to do with rising global average temperaturesIt's important to keep in mind that the dynamics of hurricane formation depend on the amount of water evaporating into the atmosphere and the contrast between the waters of different oceans. This means that areas where the greatest amount of water evaporates experience intense rainfall, as all this water eventually condenses and forms torrential rain clouds.
With the rise in average global temperatures, we're going to experience a change in atmospheric dynamics. Places that were previously colder will become warmer, and therefore, we'll experience a higher evaporation rate. Hurricane Lorenzo headed toward Europe and, as it moved northeast, strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane. This is the highest category on the Saffir-Simpson scale. It was compared to the devastating hurricane Katrina that swept through New Orleans in 2005..
Hurricane Lorenzo Characteristics
Not only is it comparable to Hurricane Katrina in intensity, but also in the area where it hits. This phenomenon, so unique in this part of the Atlantic, is the first time it has been recorded. According to all measurements from institutions and experts, Hurricane Lorenzo's path made the impact on the continent somewhat milder, and the greatest problem was in the Azores. It hit this area as winds of 160 km / h and gusts of more than 200, in some points. By the time it reached the British Isles it was already so weakened that it was not considered a hurricane.
When a hurricane forms in the ocean, it feeds on evaporating water and reaches its peak when it reaches the coast. However, once it enters the continent, it weakens and loses strength as it moves inland. This makes hurricanes more feared in coastal areas than in inland areas. The further inland an area is, the more vulnerable it is to hurricanes.
Hurricane Lorenzo in the area of Spain
It's very rare to see a hurricane in a place like ours. The first response to this type of question is quite clear. The most striking thing is the trajectory and category of this hurricane, but hurricanes begin their formation in Africa. It's here that disturbance waves are generated, causing instability and then being carried along. When these instabilities reach the warmer Caribbean Sea, they become the classic, powerful hurricanes we usually see.
The thing that this time has not reached the Caribbean since has encountered waters warm enough to form a hurricane. Instead of going west it has gone east. As we have mentioned before, for the hurricane to form, it only takes quality water that makes a large amount of water vapor elaborate that, finally, is compensated at altitude. This is how hurricane clouds form.
It only had to travel to 45 degrees west longitude for Hurricane Lorenzo to form. It's true that it was an unusual trajectory for what we're used to, but while going north, category 5 was taken. The most interesting thing about this phenomenon is that it has gone on an unusual trajectory and, although it has gone through normally less warm waters, it managed to take enough energy to reach the maximum category of hurricanes.
These are the reasons why Hurricane Lorenzo became one of the most famous hurricanes of our time. As for the hurricane's birth, we see that it has to do with climate change, as we mentioned before. It's true that it had to encounter warmer-than-normal waters to reach Category 5 status, but In any case, the existence of this type of hurricane cannot be directly related to climate change. We need a lot of attribution studies and more similar cases to be able to ensure something like this. It must be taken into account that climate change is having long-term repercussions and that there is still not enough evidence to be able to link the effects of climate change to the formation of Hurricane Lorenzo.
Will it happen again?
The doubt of many people is if we will see a hurricane of this category in our area again. Meteorology in Spain explains that with climate change we need to have various studies and more similar phenomena to know if there is some type of pattern or there are changes in the behavior of hurricanes. A curiosity is mentioned in the studies and that is, we have to see if similar hurricanes come to us in the coming years to be able to talk about this pattern. The year before we had Leslie who had a similar behavior to Lorenzo. With this, the have doubts about the effect of climate change on the pattern of hurricane formation.
Hurricane Leslie affected our country and was the most powerful cyclone to reach the Iberian Peninsula since 1842. It was also considered one of the longest lasting Atlantic hurricanes in time. It also had an extremely weird behavior since it had continuous changes in its trajectory. This caused that the experts could not plot a course well.