Hurricanes’ effects on ocean temperature revisited
The role of hurricanes in the global climate system has gained interest ever since scientists suggested that strong hurricanes have become more frequent in recent decades and might continue to do so as...
View ArticleMore hurricanes in greener seas?
More hurricanes may form in greener waters, where sunlight tends to be absorbed at shallower depths, than in clear seas, according to new research that draws a link between ocean color and the...
View ArticleCommunity urged to prepare for Hurricane Irene
The following information is from a letter from MIT's Department of Facillites in regard to preparedness for Hurricane Irene, expected to hit the New England region on Sunday. Updated information about...
View ArticleStill rebuilding New Orleans
In the years since Hurricane Katrina ravaged the Gulf Coast, the Department of Urban Studies and Planning in MIT's School of Architecture + Planning has been, and continues to be, one of the nation’s...
View ArticleThe cost of tropical cyclones
If you’re planning to build that dream beach house along the East Coast of the United States, or would like to relocate to the Caribbean, a new study by economists and climate scientists suggests you...
View Article‘Storm of the Century?’ Try ‘Storm of the Decade’
Last August, Hurricane Irene spun through the Caribbean and parts of the eastern United States, leaving widespread wreckage in its wake. The Category 3 storm whipped up water levels, generating storm...
View ArticleNew method could help communities plan for climate risk
Climate scientists cannot attribute any single weather event — whether a drought, wildfire or extreme storm — to climate change. But extreme events, such as Hurricane Sandy, are glimpses of the types...
View Article3 Questions: Engineering hurricane barriers of the future
Oceans at MIT's Genevieve Wanucha sat down with Chiang C. Mei, Ford Professor Emeritus of Engineering in MIT's Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, to ask for his perspective on the...
View ArticleThe dark and stormy side of science-policy mixology
Climate-change policy is inextricably linked to science, but the complexity of modeling Earth’s systems feeds into an imperfect policy process that often warps ideal economic instruments beyond...
View ArticleStudy: Dangerous storms peaking further north, south than in past
Powerful, destructive tropical cyclones are now reaching their peak intensity farther from the equator and closer to the poles, according to a new study co-authored by an MIT scientist.The results of...
View Article“Grey swan” cyclones predicted to be more frequent and intense
“Grey swan” cyclones — extremely rare tropical storms that are impossible to anticipate from the historical record alone — will become more frequent in the next century for parts of Florida, Australia,...
View ArticleMapathon seeks to direct humanitarian aid for Puerto Rico
Hurricane Maria caused catastrophic damage across Puerto Rico when it made landfall on Sept. 20. As the second hurricane to hit the island in a two-week period, the powerful storm devastated the...
View ArticleSolar water purifier is serving 600 Puerto Ricans daily
Puerto Ricans in the coastal town of Loíza stood in a line that stretched seven blocks, waiting hours for bags of ice and bottles of water. Dirty sewer water flooded a canal in the town. At least one...
View ArticleMIT conference seeks solutions for reconstruction in devastated Caribbean
This fall’s record-breaking hurricanes Maria and Irma left a swath of devastation across the Caribbean islands of Puerto Rico, Granada, Dominica, and others. Photos of severely damaged or demolished...
View ArticleUsing lidar to assess destruction in Puerto Rico
In the wake of a disaster, responding agencies need to assess damage quickly in order to figure out where to focus their efforts and where debris might block rescue crews.Adam Norige, associate leader...
View ArticleFor collecting weather data, tiny satellites measure up to billion-dollar...
Big storms are getting bigger. Typhoon Jebi became the strongest tropical cyclone to hit Japan in 25 years and killed at least 10 people this past summer. Hurricane Florence awed even veteran...
View ArticleLidar accelerates hurricane recovery in the Carolinas
Hurricane Florence's slow trot over North and South Carolina in September led to inundating rain, record storm surges, and another major disaster for the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to...
View ArticleAn atomic-scale erector set
To design buildings that can withstand the largest of storms, Kostas Keremidis, a PhD candidate at the MIT Concrete Sustainability Hub, is using research at the smallest scale — that of the atom.His...
View Article3Q: Jeremy Gregory on measuring the benefits of hazard resilience
According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the combined cost of natural disasters in the United States was $91 billion in 2018. The year before, natural disasters...
View ArticleDiscerning the texture of urban resilience
If you’ve ever turned down a city street only to be blasted with air, you’ve stepped into what is known as an urban canyon.Much like their geological counterparts, urban canyons are gaps between two...
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