(AP) -- Top experts on hurricanes and climate change have reached on consensus on the relationship between the two.
They're saying the world is likely to get stronger but fewer hurricanes in the future because of global warming. But, in a study published online in the journal Nature GeoScience, they also say there's not enough evidence yet to tell whether that effect has already begun.
Dueling scientific papers over the last five years have presented starkly different conclusions about whether global warming is worsening hurricanes. So, the World Meteorological Organization brought together a panel of 10 experts that included leading scientists from both sides, and their joint study seems to split the difference.
The study offers projections for tropical cyclones worldwide by the end of this century, and some experts said the bad news outweighs the good. Overall strength of storms as measured in wind speed would rise by as much as 11 percent, but the number of storms could drop by as much as a third.
On the Net: Nature Geoscience
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