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As Hurricane Maria Intensifies, How Climate Science Can Improve Forecasts

Inside Climate News: Another hurricane—Maria—is heading toward the islands of the Caribbean, and scientists with the National Hurricane Center say it is strengthening rapidly and could hit Puerto Rico midweek as a Category 4 storm, with 130 to 150 mph winds.

Forecasters are able to predict hurricane behavior fairly accurately a few days out now. But to determine more precisely and earlier how hurricanes like this will strengthen and move, they need a better understanding of how oceans are warming, how land temperatures and vegetation are changing, and the impact these changing climates will have on the storms themselves.

That knowledge can be a matter of life and death for people in the path of storms as communities and relief agencies prepare for storm impacts and recovery efforts.

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