Scientist doubts warming-hurricane link

MIAMI, May 2 (UPI) -- Chris Landsea, a scientist at the National Hurricane Center in Florida, says there is no link between global warming and the frequency of hurricanes.

Landsea said in a study released Tuesday that previous claims of a link were unreliable, since researchers underestimated the number of storms that occurred before the satellite era, The Miami Herald reported Wednesday.

Some hurricane scientists, including Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Kerry Emanuel, say global warming has contributed to an increased number of hurricanes.

Landsea says three hurricanes each year, on average, went uncounted during the late 1800s and the first half of the 20th century -- before satellite storm monitoring was used to track storms.

"When you add those storms back into the record, we don't see any new trend," Landsea said. "There's no link to global warming that you can see at all."

Emanuel declined to comment on Landsea's study, referring questions to Tom Knutson of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the newspaper said.

Knutson told the Herald Landsea "makes a very good case," but "I consider the science still unsettled."