When Hurricane Laura battered Louisiana in August, becoming the most powerful storm to ever make landfall in the U.S., forecasters were confounded by its behavior. Not only did it fail lose power as hurricanes often do when they approach land, it appeared to be doing the exact opposite, exploding from a Category 1 to a Category 4 storm in less than 24 hours. By the time it made landfall, Laura’s winds were clocking 150 miles per hour. Projected storm surge jumped from 11 feet to 20 feet, and Louisianans intent on riding out a weaker storm were forced to make an 11th-hour decision to evacuate. Hurricane Laura Cuts Destructive Path, Weakens Over Land Laura’s behavior, known as rapid intensification, was likely exacerbated by climate change, according to some scientists, with warmer ocean waters causing storms to become super-charged. Meteorologists can’t yet predict which hurricanes will become overnight monsters, but […]