ORLANDO, Fla. — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently released its annual temperature rankings for the entire planet for 2022.
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According to their findings, the Earth’s surface was 1.5 degrees warmer this year than normal. It was enough to make 2022 the sixth warmest year on record.
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In 2022, Floridians saw back-to-back hurricanes with Ian first slamming southeast Florida and flooding many Central Florida neighborhoods.
That was swiftly followed by Hurricane Nicole, which scoured Volusia County’s coastline.
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While warmer waters can help produce stronger hurricanes, some of the most distinct signatures of climate change in tropical systems come in the form of two events: storm surge and extreme rainfall events.
In the coming decades, NOAA scientists expect continued warming in the atmosphere and in the ocean, leading to more extreme weather events that are more intense and longer in duration, which comes at a cost.
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Extreme weather events cost the United States more than $165 billion dollars in damages last year.
NOAA scientists say they’ll continue to try to understand and predict what types of extremes to expect in an effort to minimize their financial impacts and disruptions in the future.
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