Tropical Cyclones Moving Slower Over Land: Study

A new study finds that tropical cyclones around the world are moving slightly slower over land and water, dumping more rain as they stall, just as Hurricane Harvey did last year.

This isn’t about how powerful a storm’s winds are, just how fast it chugs along. Looking at data since 1949, a government climate scientist calculates that storms in the last few years are moving about 10 percent slower globally than they were 60 years ago. And that was before slowpoke Harvey hit last year.

In the Atlantic basin, the slowdown is just 6 percent. It’s 20 percent when storms reached land.

Study author James Kossin of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration says Harvey is a great example of what he found.

The study was published in the journal Nature.