The United States have been undergoing major natural disasters in the form of forest fires, freak storms as well as a hurricane in the latest manifestations of the effect of global warming.
The latest is a Category 4 storm named ‘Florence’ that is currently speeding towards the coast of the Carolinas in the United States in another manifestation of freak weather conditions over the United States.
Hurricane Florence is currently moving West over the Atlantic Ocean between Bermuda and the Bahamas is forecast to approach the coast of North Carolina or South Carolina on Thursday.
According to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) Hurricane Florence is ranked as a category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale and according to the U.S. National Hurricane Centre, category 4 hurricanes are also ranked as major hurricanes, with winds at 130 to 156 mile per hour (209 to 251 kilometre per hour), with a huge likelihood of damage on a large devastating scale.
Hurricane Florence is described as very large and very strong as well as extremely dangerous by the WMO who give warning that Florence will continue to grow more dangerous as it makes landfall on Thursday.
According to the WMO Florence which can also be seen from space carries a dangerous amount of rainfall with it. The International weather agency says,
“It’s a very big hurricane which can be seen from space there is currently a one to seven-day rainfall forecast of more than 10 to 15 inches (254 to 381 millimeters).”
WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said;
“We are seeing the highest worldwide temperatures since records began. We have been breaking records in some parts of the world. We have seen heat waves hitting Japan, Europe – especially the northern part of Europe – where a large part of the harvest has been lost, and we have seen quite devastating fires hitting Canada and western parts of the USA.
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We just saw a record-breaking typhoon hitting Japan a couple of days ago; the most intense typhoon in Japan for the past 25 years. Japan was also exposed to very intense rainfall, leading to flooding and landslides, with casualties.”
The WMO also confirmed the presence of two other hurricanes alongside Florence; Isaac and Helene moving across the ocean at the moment. The last time three hurricanes occurred simultaneously was in 2017 when Hurricane Irma, Jose and Katia made landfall in the United States as well.
In the Pacific Ocean, Typhoon Manghut, a very strong tropical cyclone and the largest currently active, is also expected to impact the northern part of the Philippines later in the week.
Experts have called these events a physical manifestation of the effects of global warming and warned that there may be more freak weather occurrences in the coming weeks and months.