Researchers Identify a ‘Climatic Quirk’ That is Shielding US from Intense Cyclones since Two Decades

A climatic quirk has been safeguarding the coasts of the US from the intense and powerful cyclones and hurricanes since last 20 years, a new research has detected. The research conducted by NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information revealed the existence of a buffered zone close to the coastal areas of the US, which is protecting the mainland of the country from the strikes of intense tornados and cyclones since the last couple of decades.

A group of scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information has marked this protective barrier spreading across the East and Gulf Coasts of the United State. The buffered zone is marked by powerful crosswinds and cooler water temperatures, and is claimed to be preventing the hurricanes from escalating near the coastal provenances of the U.S. The study published Wednesday in the journal Nature is expected to give details about why since more than 11 years a major storm with winds steam of than 110 mph has to strike the mainland of the United States.

As said by the lead author of the study, James KossiCounter, “Undoubtedly, this protective barrier is likely to be in the strongest position during dynamic hurricane events, like the one we’ve seen in the mid of 1990s. When situations in the tropical Atlantic are in a sound state for hurricane strengthening, they used to be bad for it near the shoreline. The study was conducted by studying the hurricane data from 1947 to 2015.

According to the research report, when a tornado or cyclone turns on during an active epoch moving toward the U.S., the protection zone seems to deteriorate. For example, the Hurricane Matthew happened last October, destabilized from a Category 4 near Haiti to a Category 1 as it drew nearer to the U.S.

Kossinr, the lead author of the study mapped the surface of the ocean temperatures and the wind shave intensities in the Atlantic in order to monitor each and every small change taking place near the shorelines of the U.S. He, during the research, found a contained amplification in extreme altitude crosswinds known as wind shear that split at a particular structure of the storm. The study also detected the slightly chilled sea surface temperatures, which trim down the increase of hot water during the hurricane.