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Lethal hurricane Gaemi worsened by climate change, researchers say

A destructive typhoon that tore through the Philippines, Taiwan and China last month, damaging facilities and leaving more than 100 individuals dead, was made significantly even worse by humaninduced environment change, researchers said in a report on Thursday.

As another typhoon made landfall in Japan, environment researchers said warmer seas were providing additional fuel for hurricanes in Asia, making them more dangerous.

Typhoon Gaemi swept across East Asia starting on July 22, with more than 300mm (11.81 inches) of rains falling on Philippine capital Manila in simply one day.

Wind speeds as high as 145 miles per hour (232 kph) drove storm waves that sank an oil tanker off the Philippine coast and a freight ship near Taiwan. Rain from Gaemi likewise triggered deadly mudslides in the Chinese province of Hunan.

Tropical cyclone Gaemi's wind speeds were around 9 mph more extreme and its rainfall up to 14% greater as an outcome of warmer sea temperature levels, according to scientists in a report from World Weather Attribution, an alliance of scientists that analyse the relationship between climate modification and extreme weather condition.

With international temperature levels rising, we are currently witnessing an increase in these ocean temperature levels, and as a result, more effective fuel is being made available for these tropical cyclones, increasing their strength, Nadia Bloemendaal, researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute, told a briefing on Wednesday ahead of the report's release.

At the very same briefing, Clair Barnes, research study partner at London's Grantham Institute, stated hurricanes were now 30% more likely to take place compared to the pre-industrial age, warning that they will become much more typical and extreme if global temperature increases reach 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit).

East Asia is accustomed to extreme weather condition, but its flood avoidance infrastructure and emergency situation action preparation are coming under increasing pressure, stated Maja Vahlberg, an environment danger consultant with the Red Cross Red Crescent Environment Centre.

Even our best efforts are being extended to their limitations, she said.

(source: Reuters)