Climate change gave significant boost to Milton’s destructive rain, winds, scientists say

Associated Press

Scientists say human-caused climate change intensified deadly Hurricane Milton’s rainfall by 20 to 30% and strengthened its winds by about 10%. World Weather Attribution’s flash study comes just two weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated the southeastern United States, a storm also fueled by climate change. The scientists said without climate change, Milton would have come ashore as a weaker Category 2 storm rather than Category 3. World Weather Attribution’s rapid studies aren’t peer-reviewed but they use peer-reviewed methods. For Milton, they didn’t use climate models as they usually do, but said their analysis from weather data fit with previous studies of hurricanes in the area.