BOULDER, Colo., Sept. 12 (UPI) -- A study by 19 U.S. and European scientists finds greenhouse gases, not natural cycles, are causing warmer oceans that produce more powerful hurricanes.
"Clearly, this is a result of the increasing concentrations of greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere," study co-author Tom Wigley, a senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colo., told ABC News. "The work that we've done kind of closes the loop here."
The weather experts used 22 computer climate models to examine the Atlantic and Pacific oceans' tropical regions where tropical cyclones, or hurricanes, are born. The climate scientists found temperatures in those areas have increased an average of between a half degree Fahrenheit and 1.2 degrees Fahrenheit, during the last century.
The study says humans are most likely to blame for at least 67 percent of that warming, ABC reported, and the scientists expect hurricanes will become even stronger as the oceans continue to warm.
The U.S. Department of Energy-funded study appears in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
