Worsening ocean heat waves are 'supercharging' hurricane damage, study finds

WASHINGTON (AP) — Marine heat waves are supercharging damage caused by hurricanes and tropical cyclones across the globe, a new study found.

Researchers looked at 1,600 tropical cyclones — the broader category of storms that includes hurricanes — that made landfall since 1981 and found those that went over the extra-hot water were more likely to intensify rapidly, a problem that's becoming more frequent. This resulted in 60% more disasters that caused at least $1 billion in damage — adjusted for inflation — when they hit land, according to a study in Friday's journal Science Advances.

A better understanding of how marine heat waves amplify hurricanes could help forecasters, emergency officials and long-term planners prepare for future storms.

The study defined marine heat waves as long-lasting, large areas of water in the top 10% of historical heat. They are becoming more of a danger with climate change and ever hotter oceans, study authors said. Warm water is fuel for hurricanes.

“These marine heat waves affect more than half of landfalling tropical cyclones,'' said study co-author Gregory Foltz, an oceanographer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “They're happening closer to land and more frequently, so I think people need to pay attention and know that these are more likely to result in extreme damages when they make landfall.”

It's important for meteorologists forecasting the storm track to see if these hurricanes go over a marine heat wave because it is more likely to intensify rapidly which “can potentially have a bigger impact on landfall,” Foltz said.

Just look at damaging hurricanes that smacked the United States in 2023, said study co-author Hamed Moftakhari, a coastal engineering professor who studies compound hazards at the University of Alabama.

“The story of Helene and Milton is that if you've got a warmer ocean, you've got the fuel to supercharge tropical cyclones even in a cascade. So within a few weeks you could get two rapidly intensified hurricanes making landfall in the west coast of Florida,” Moftakhari said. “This is shocking but should also be alarming for people.”

The study also points to October 2023's Hurricane Otis, which rapidly intensified from a tropical storm to a top level Category 5 hurricane in one day, then caused about $16 billion in damage and 52 deaths when it made landfall near Acapulco, Mexico, with 165 mph (265 kph) winds.

Researchers said the higher damage, compared with storms that didn’t cross marine heat waves, wasn’t driven by increased coastal development. Storms that crossed hot water and hit developed coasts were contrasted with other storms that hit similarly urbanized areas but without crossing hot water, said study lead author Soheil Radfar, a scientist who does hurricane hazard modeling at Princeton University.

Science has long known that warm water fuels and often strengthens tropical cyclones, providing more of a link on causation.

That means the future looks more dangerous, Radfar said.

“All these pieces of the puzzle are going to be really challenging for the coastal environment in the next four decades when you have more rapid intensification, more marine heat waves," Radfar said. This “is going to be really costly and frightening for the coastline environment, and it’s going to cause more billion-dollar disasters in the future.”

Moftakhari said “from a coastal engineering and risk management perspective, this has important implications for how governments plan, design, and respond to these hazards.”

Evacuation planning must account for storms that cross ocean hot spots being more likely to intensify rapidly and pose greater threats, according to Moftakhari. Earlier warnings and triggers on when people leave may be needed when there are marine heat waves. Designs for flood protection, drainage system, sea walls all have to be updated to the new worsening storm reality, he said.

Outside scientists said the study fits with the known physics of hurricanes and climate change, while putting a more specific number on the likelihood for mega-damage when marine heat waves are present.

“Climate change is causing stronger and longer-duration marine heat waves. Tropical cyclones draw their energy and produce heavy rain via evaporation from warm ocean waters,” said University at Albany atmospheric sciences professor Brian Tang, who wasn't part of the study. “It’s reasonable that marine heat waves are turbocharging hurricanes, provided other environmental conditions are favorable for hurricanes to intensify. In effect, the dice is being loaded.”

The Associated Press’ climate and environmental coverage receives financial support from multiple private foundations. AP is solely responsible for all content. Find AP’s standards for working with philanthropies, a list of supporters and funded coverage areas at AP.org.

FILE - The Hotel Flamingo is surrounded by debris in the aftermath of Hurricane Otis, in Acapulco, Mexico, Friday, Nov. 10, 2023. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)

FILE - Jaime Sosa stands amid the ruins of his home nearly three weeks after Hurricane Otis hit as a Category 5 storm in the Alta Cuauhtemoc area of Acapulco, Mexico, Nov. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)

FILE - Waves lap on the beach in front of empty house foundations surrounded by debris, following the passage of Hurricane Milton, on Manasota Key, in Englewood, Fla., Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

FILE - People bike past damaged homes and debris left by Hurricane Milton, on the sand-coated main road of southern Manasota Key, already cleared of feet of sand, in Englewood, Fla., Oct. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

FILE - A man walks alongside damaged apartments in the aftermath of Hurricane Otis, in the Diamonds subdivision of Acapulco, Mexico, Nov. 9, 2023. (AP Photo/Marco Ugarte, File)

BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Former Los Angeles police detective Mark Fuhrman, who was convicted of lying during testimony at the O.J. Simpson murder trial, has died. He was 74.

Fuhrman was one of the first two police detectives sent to investigate the 1994 killings of Simpson’s ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend, Ronald Goldman, in Los Angeles. He reported finding a bloody glove at Simpson’s home but his credibility came under attack during the trial as the defense raised the prospect of racial bias.

Under cross-examination, Fuhrman testified that he had never made anti-Black racial slurs in the past decade, but a recording showed he had done so repeatedly.

Lynn Acebedo, the chief deputy coroner in Kootenai County, Idaho, said that Fuhrman died May 12. The county does not release the cause of death as a rule.

Alan Dershowitz, a prominent lawyer and law professor who was a legal strategist on Simpson’s defense “Dream Team,” said Fuhrman was a “much better detective than he was a witness.”

“He’s very smart, and you know, a very, very aggressive detective. Ultimately his actions helped us win the O.J. case because of his use of the ‘n’ word,” Dershowitz said Monday evening. “I got to know him later, after it was all over, and we had a cordial relationship.”

Fuhrman retired from the Los Angeles Police Department after Simpson’s 1995 acquittal. He subsequently moved to Idaho with his family and set up a 20-acre (eight-hectare) farm, raising chickens, goats, sheep and llamas.

In 1996, Fuhrman was charged with perjury and pleaded no contest. He later became a TV and radio commentator and wrote the book “Murder in Brentwood” about the killings.

A criminal-court jury found Simpson, a former star NFL running back and actor, not guilty of murder in 1995, but a separate civil trial jury found him liable in 1997 for the deaths and ordered him to pay $33.5 million to relatives of Brown and Goldman. He served nine years in prison on unrelated charges and died in Las Vegas of prostate cancer in 2024 at the age of 76.

Kato Kaitlin, a friend of Brown who also testified in the murder trial, wrote in a post on X that he wanted to respectfully acknowledge Fuhrman's death and that he hopes Fuhrman's loved ones can find peace.

“While we were never close personally, our lives were indelibly linked through our roles in the O.J. Simpson trial over thirty years ago. It was a deeply complex and painful chapter for everyone involved, but any loss of life is a time for reflection and solemnity,” Kaitlin wrote.

Fuhrman’s father left when he was 7 years old, and Fuhrman often cared for his younger brother while his mother worked. As an adult, he joined the Marines and then the Los Angeles Police Department.

Golden reported from Seattle.

FILE - In this June 15, 1995 file photo, O.J. Simpson, left, grimaces as he tries on one of the leather gloves prosecutors say he wore the night his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman were murdered in a Los Angeles courtroom. (AP Photo/Sam Mircovich, Pool, File)

FILE - Los Angeles Police Department Det. Mark Fuhrman, foreground, and Superior Court Judge Lance Ito, rear, crane their heads to look at an overhead monitor during the O.J. Simpson double-murder trial, Friday, March 10, 1995, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon, File)

FILE - Los Angeles Police Detective Mark Fuhrman shows the jury in the O.J. Simpson double murder trial evidence during testimony Friday, March 10, 1995, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Nick Ut, Pool, File)