Early yesterday morning (August 21, 2007), Hurricane Dean slammed into Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula with the full force of a Category 5 hurricane, including sustained winds of more than 165 mph and gusts as high at 200 mph—faster than the takeoff speed of most passenger jets.
After its initial punch, Hurricane Dean began to lose power and was reclassified as a Category 1 hurricane with sustained winds of about 105 mph, but it is expected to regain some of its strength as its eye moves over the Bay of Campeche--where more than 100 oil platforms and three major oil exporting ports are located--and then slam into the mainland this afternoon near Laguna Verde, Mexico’s only nuclear power plant. Nuclear plant officials have suspended operations and sent most workers home.
Satellite photo of Hurricane Dean courtesy of NASA
Globally, Hurricane Dean is the most powerful storm recorded in 2007—the Atlantic hurricane season typically runs from June 1 through November 30—and certainly the strongest to hit land. Hurricane Dean is also the first Category 5 Atlantic hurricane since Hurricane Wilma set records in October 2005, and the first storm of such force to make landfall since Hurricane Andrew hit south Florida in 1992.
Hurricane Dean ranks ninth among the 10 most intense hurricanes on record, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce, with a recorded minimum central pressure of 906 millibars (hurricane intensity is measured solely by central pressure). Six of those storms, including Hurricane Rita and Hurricane Katrina, have occurred within the past 10 years.
Many climate scientists have concluded that global warming is contributing to more frequent and severe storms and hurricanes worldwide. While no one hurricane proves a connection between global warming and storm intensity, the cumulative record does suggest a relationship between rising temperatures and changing weather patterns.
Meanwhile, the majority of Americans now believe there is a clear cause-and-effect relationship between global warming and severe weather events—such as hurricanes, droughts, reduced snowfall, summer heat waves, and increased wildfires—as shown by a public opinion poll taken in August 2006, shortly before the first anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.
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