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The one-two punch delivered by Hurricanes Harvey and Irma has left the southern United States and many islands in the northern Caribbean reeling, collectively resulting in more than 130 deaths, massive long-term flooding, and property damage totaling to a minimum of $132 billion — a number expected to climb dramatically as the aftermath of Irma’s rampage is assessed.

The first major hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. in 12 years, Harvey was also the wettest tropical hurricane on record in the contiguous United States., dumping 51.88 inches (1,31.8 centimeters) — four and one-third feet — of rainfall. The resulting flooding inundated hundreds of thousands of homes, displacing more than 30,000 people.
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Hurricane Irma, an “extremely dangerous” Category 5 storm, is now moving toward the northern Lesser Antilles and Southern Florida. It’s already the strongest hurricane ever recorded outside the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico, and its current track suggests landfall somewhere in Florida over the weekend. Right now, the track looks as if it will hit southern Florida. Depending on whether or not it weakens as it moves through the Lesser Antilles, it could be one of the most powerful hurricane strikes in the history of the state.
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Hurricane Harvey expanded from a tropical storm to a category 4 hurricane in just 48 hours, and is now stalled over eastern Texas and western Louisiana and dropping rainfall in the area at a rate never before witnessed. But why is this? Like Hurricane Katrina and Superstorm Sandy, Harvey expanded to hurricane force with unexpected speed. The reason is that sea-surface waters in the Gulf of Mexico were between 2.7 and 7.2 degrees Fahrenheit above average. Water temperatures in the Gulf have been rising for the past thirty years, with the highest temperatures being recorded in 2011. They then dropped until 2013, and have since been rising again. read more