It’s been just over a year since Helene tore through North Carolina, leaving debris, death and damaged roads in its wake. Communities across the state are still recovering, with some forever changed.
For this week’s Carolina Curious, WFDD’s DJ Simmons wondered: Does Helene represent an increasingly new normal for weather-related events?
He recently spoke with John Uehling, a climate data analyst with the North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies.
Interview highlights
On how climate change affects storm intensity and frequency:
"As the oceans continue to warm, as the climate continues to warm, the source of energy for tropical cyclones will continue to increase, and so you'd expect that you'd have stronger storms as a result. But there are some factors, such as wind shear that's also expected to increase, and those tend to decrease tropical cyclones and put a limit on the intensity. Right now, the forecast is that we would expect to see stronger storms, but potentially less of them."
On the likelihood of an increase in dangerous weather events:
"What we've also noticed is that some of the largest increases, some of the places where we really saw some of the most significant increases in tropical cyclone rainfall, were over the southern Appalachian Mountains. That further exacerbates the problem, because then you have people that are less familiar with dealing with the impacts that are actually going to start seeing some of the worst impacts."