Eastern North Carolina has seen a surge in intense tropical storms and researchers say the impacts go beyond flooding and property damage.
Have you ever thought that hurricane season seems to be getting worse each year?
UNC-Chapel Hill Kenan professor of marine and environmental sciences, Dr. Hans Paerl, said not only can decades of data demonstrate the increasing frequency of tropical storms and hurricanes but also years of living in eastern North Carolina can reveal just how severe the impacts have become.
“You know, I’ve lived in coastal North Carolina for over 40-years and the first 25, 30 years or so, things hadn’t really changed all that much, but since the mid-1990s we’ve seen upsurges in more tropical storms, including very extreme events.”