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Hurricanes Are Strengthening Much Faster Than They Did in the 1980s

They are now “more than twice as likely” to jump from Category 1 to Category 3 or more in a single day.

A hurricane.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

It is thanks to researchers like Andra Garner that your creeping suspicion that things are getting worse can be statistically confirmed — and quantified. On Thursday, Scientific Reports published Garner’s new study, which found that Atlantic hurricanes are “more than twice as likely to strengthen from a weak Category 1 hurricane to a major Category 3 or stronger hurricane in a 24-hour period than they were between 1970 and 1990.” She also found that for hurricanes off the East Coast, that intensification is more likely than ever to happen quickly.

“Most of these findings have served to better quantify and describe a phenomenon that is very much expected in a warmer climate,” Garner, an assistant professor at Rowan University’s Department of Environmental Science, told me over email. “That means that there weren’t necessarily any surprises.”

But that doesn’t mean the findings aren’t invaluable for our understanding of how, precisely, hurricanes are getting more dangerous in our warming world. “I would say, the increased likelihood for hurricanes to transition from weak storms into major hurricanes in 36 hours or less was particularly striking to me, especially since statistical analyses indicated that it would have been impossible to observe this increase if the frequency with which intensification events cause storms to evolve from relatively weak storms into major hurricanes had not changed since the historical era,” Garner added.

For her analysis, Garner looked at wind speed changes over the lifespan of every Atlantic hurricane to form during three different eras: the “historic era,” between 1970 and 1990; the “intermediate era,” between 1986 and 2005; and the “modern era,” between 2001 and 2020. She found that the probability that a hurricane’s maximum intensification rate was 20 knots (about 23 miles per hour) or more during a 24-hour period jumped from 42.3% during the historic era to 56.7% in the modern era. It is also more likely that modern hurricanes will strengthen from weak storms into major hurricanes in the span of a day, up to 8.12% from just 3.23% during the historic era.

Scientists have long understood that climate change is fueling stronger hurricanes, primarily because warmer oceans basically act as Redbull for storms — by one commonly cited estimate, every 1 degree Celsius increase in ocean temperature adds a 50% increase in the storm’s “destructive potential.” But Garner sees the purpose of her research as less about the awesome power of these modern storms — four of the five most economically damaging Atlantic hurricanes have occurred since 2017, her paper notes — and more about what this rapid intensification will mean when it comes to future forecasting and emergency planning. “I think these findings should really serve as an urgent warning for us,” she stressed to me. Though she didn’t look at future projections for this analysis, she believes it’s “reasonable to expect that without major changes in our behavior, and a rapid transition away from fossil fuels, this is a trend that will continue to get more extreme.”

Garner, though, doesn’t want all this to be digested as just more bad news even if it might seem that way from the top line. “[I]t is really critical to remember that there is definitely still hope,” she told me. “Because human-caused warming has created conditions in which hurricanes can strengthen more quickly, we’re the cause of this problem — which means we can also be the solution.”

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Sparks

Rewiring America Slashes Staff Due to Trump Funding Freeze

The nonprofit laid off 36 employees, or 28% of its headcount.

Surprised outlets.
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The Trump administration’s funding freeze has hit the leading electrification nonprofit Rewiring America, which announced Thursday that it will be cutting its workforce by 28%, or 36 employees. In a letter to the team, the organization’s cofounder and CEO Ari Matusiak placed the blame squarely on the Trump administration’s attempts to claw back billions in funding allocated through the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund.

“The volatility we face is not something we created: it is being directed at us,” Matusiak wrote in his public letter to employees. Along with a group of four other housing, climate, and community organizations, collectively known as Power Forward Communities, Rewiring America was the recipient of a $2 billion GGRF grant last April to help decarbonize American homes.

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Sparks

Sunrun Tells Investors That a Recession Could Be Just Fine, Actually

The company managed to put a positive spin on tariffs.

A house with solar panels.
Heatmap Illustration/Sunrun, Getty Images

The residential solar company Sunrun is, like much of the rest of the clean energy business, getting hit by tariffs. The company told investors in its first quarter earnings report Tuesday that about half its supply of solar modules comes from overseas, and thus is subject to import taxes. It’s trying to secure more modules domestically “as availability increases,” Sunrun said, but “costs are higher and availability limited near-term.”

“We do not directly import any solar equipment from China, although producers in China are important for various upstream components used by our suppliers,” Sunrun chief executive Mary Powell said on the call, indicating that having an entirely-China-free supply chain is likely impossible in the renewable energy industry.

Hardware makes up about a third of the company’s costs, according to Powell. “This cost will increase from tariffs,” she said, although some advance purchasing done before the end of last year will help mitigate that. All told, tariffs could lower the company’s cash generation by $100 million to $200 million, chief financial officer Danny Abajian said.

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Sparks

The Power Sector Loves Big Tech’s Billion-Dollar Data Center Plans

Meta and Microsoft both confirmed plans to invest heavily in AI infrastructure.

Meta headquarters.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Big Tech said this week that it’s going full steam ahead with building out data centers, and the power industry loves it. Since Microsoft and Meta reported their earnings for the beginning of the year on Wednesday, including announcements either reaffirming their guidance on capital expenditures or even increasing it, power sector stocks have jumped.

Shares of Vistra, which has a fleet of power plants including nuclear, natural gas, coal, and renewables, are up almost 7% in early afternoon trading. Constellation, one of the largest nuclear producers in the country, is up 8%. GE Vernova, which makes in-demand gas turbines, is up 4%. Chip designer Nvidia’s shares are up 4%.

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