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Climate Change: Typhoons in coastal Asia and China could be twice as powerful by 2100, says Chinese University of Hong Kong study
- Their overall destructive power could double by the end of the century in the worst-case climate change scenario
- The projection also suggests that an average typhoon by then will last 56 per cent longer and travel 50 per cent further inland
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The destructive power of typhoons in Asia could nearly double by the end of the century, according to a study by the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
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Their average wind speed at landfall could strengthen by 6 per cent, or 7.2 kilometres per hour, said a paper authored by researchers from the university and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area Weather Research Centre for Monitoring Warning and Forecasting in Shenzhen.
“The projection also suggests that an average typhoon by then will last around five hours [or 56 per cent] longer and will travel 92km [or 50 per cent] further inland, nearly doubling its overall destructive power,” the CUHK said in a statement.
The predictions are based on a worst-case climate change scenario.
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The researchers found that between 1979 and 2016 the tropical storms increased in duration by two to nine hours and penetrated 30 to 190km further inland.
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