Hurricane Patricia barreled closer and closer to Mexico Friday with residents preparing for high winds and rain on the Pacific coast.
Florida State University’s internationally recognized experts are available to provide commentary to the media on the hurricane and the climate conditions that breed such a strong storm.
Jim Elsner, professor of geography, College of Social Sciences: (850) 566-3800; [email protected]
Elsner is an expert on hurricanes and statistical models for long-range prediction. His research is on developing the science and technology for modeling the risk of a catastrophic storm along the nation’s coastline. He studies the relationship of hurricanes to climate factors including El Niño and global warming. In a paper published in Nature Climate Change this past May, Elsner laid out findings that showed that climate change may be the driving force behind fewer, yet more powerful hurricanes and tropical storms.
“As the oceans continue to heat up, we can expect the strongest storms will get stronger.”
David Zierden, state climatologist, The Florida Climate Center and Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies: (850) 644-3417; [email protected]
Zierden serves as the state climatologist for the state of Florida and a research associate for the Center for Oceanic and Atmospheric Prediction Studies. He is an expert on how hurricanes and climate are interrelated and particularly, the El Niño effect.
“We are in a very strong El Niño right now and it is well known that El Niño favors hurricane formation in that region of the Pacific. In addition, the ocean temperatures and heat content is much above normal this year in the area where Patricia formed and is certainly fueling its record strength.”
Dmitry Dukhovskoy, associate scientist, Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies: (850) 644-1168; [email protected]
Dukhovskoy’s research interests focus on numerical modeling of ocean physical processes including ocean dynamics, storm surges, air-sea interaction, waves and tides. He has been involved in different research efforts that studied ocean response to tropical storms. Currently, he is developing a storm surge model for the U.S. Gulf Coast as part of a project on flood risk assessment in the Gulf of Mexico. ###
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