Hurricanes: A Primer on Formation, Structure, Intensity Change and Frequency

The 2005 hurricane season visited major destruction on the United States. The devastation of the Gulf Coast, the loss of life, and dislocation of hundreds of thousands is a tragedy that we will not soon forget.

Unfortunately, last year’s experiences are also being used to advance claims about climate change. It has been widely asserted that warming global temperatures are producing more frequent and more intense tropical storms. Overly focusing on that linkage detracts from serious consideration of what can and should be done to mitigate the damage from similar storms in the future.

This paper explains how hurricanes form and the challenges faced in predicting where they go, how strong they are, and how frequently they will occur. It describes the limits of the observational record. Given those limits, the pronouncements of those who claim that human activities are causing

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