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Super Typhoon Mawar is barreling toward the United States territory of Guam. It is pushing a wall of water in front of it, and packs winds powerful enough to snap power poles and uproot trees.
Climate change makes storms like Mawar more likely.
The ocean soaks up most of the extra heat that is trapped near the Earth’s surface by human emissions of greenhouse gasses. The warmer ocean waters are fuel for storms, helping them get large and powerful like Mawar. As the storm approached Guam and the Mariana Islands on Tuesday, the National Weather Service described Mawar as a «triple threat» with powerful winds, torrential rain and «life-threatening storm surge.»
Mawar has rapidly gained strength as it moves toward land. In just one day, it went from a Category 1 storm, with winds that might remove a few shingles, to a Category 4 storm with winds powerful enough to tear away roofs entirely.
Such rapid intensification is increasingly common. And storms that gain strength quickly can be extremely dangerous because there is less time to warn people in harm’s way. Last year, Hurricane Ian ballooned into a devastatingly powerful storm shortly before hitting Florida. In 2021, Hurricane Ida gained strength right before making landfall in Louisiana.
