The Alarming Reality of Growing Hurricanes with scientist Michael Wehner

We all know that extreme weather events like hurricanes are getting worse due to climate change, but what scientists would really like to know is: By how much worse exactly? This year a team of researchers argued that hurricanes have become so much more extreme due to climate change that we need to add a new category 6 to the Saffir-Simpson scale, which measures the wind speed of hurricanes.


One of those scientists was Michael Wehner from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Using the latest and fastest computers to model how a warming world is reshaping extreme weather events, Wehner is leading a  new realm of climate modeling called "end-to-end attribution." This would allow us to not only understand how much worse disastrous weather is becoming but even quantify that difference in terms of damage and destruction.


Big Brains is sponsored by the Graham School for Continuing Liberal and Professional Studies (https://graham.uchicago.edu) .


00:00 The Escalating Impact of Climate Change on Extreme Weather
00:52 Introducing Michael Wehner: A Pioneer in Climate Modeling
02:05 The Case for a Category 6 Hurricane
09:28 Inside the Eye of a Super Typhoon: The Reality of Category 6 Storms
12:06 The Science Behind Hurricanes and Climate Change
13:38 The Real Danger: Beyond Wind Speeds in Hurricane Impact
17:39 End to End Attribution: Calculating the True Cost of Climate Change
21:31 The Uninsurable Future: Climate Change and Insurance Costs
25:10 Adapting to Climate Change: The Path Forward
27:13 Closing Thoughts and Resources