Strong riptides linked to tropical storm systems, including Hurricane Erin, last month made swimming conditions more dangerous, keeping this summer.
With two months left of the , the state鈥檚 coastline may still have to contend with the effects of tropical storms and hurricanes supercharged by climate change.
As manmade climate change warms the atmosphere, New Hampshire is getting . The Gulf of Maine is than the ocean overall.
Mary Stampone, the state鈥檚 climatologist, said these conditions can supercharge storms. Typically, hurricanes that made their way up to New England started to weaken as they moved into the colder waters of the North Atlantic.
鈥淏ut with our oceans warming, those storms are not weakening at the same rate that they used to,鈥� Stampone said. 鈥淪o with the warmer waters means that we can then get tropical systems that are still in the hurricane or tropical storm phase.鈥�
This is because a few key factors power hurricanes. Warmer ocean waters mean more intense storms and warmer atmospheres can hold more moisture which can lead to more precipitation. The end result tends to be storms that are more intense, with stronger winds, more rain and more coastal flooding. As sea levels rise, scientists predict storm surge will get worse.
Even if a storm doesn鈥檛 make landfall in New England, its effects can still be felt, like Hurricane Erin. Stampone said offshore systems can still turn up the intensity of waves and currents near shore.
Other factors like influence the strength of a given hurricane season. The last El Ni帽o went from mid-2023 to June 2024.
Stampone says hurricanes shouldn鈥檛 be the only storms that grab our attention.
She said Nor鈥橢asters, which are distinguished from hurricanes because they form over colder water, can cause the most coastal damage here. They can happen in the winter and often come in the form of blizzards.
鈥淚t's small but a very important coastline that we have,鈥� she said.
