National

Climate Change, The Environment, And Hurricanes

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Hurricane season is here, and forecasters are predicting one of the busiest seasons in recorded weather history.

Published

6 months ago

June 3, 2025

Joshua Williams

NASSAU, BAHAMAS – Hurricane season is here, and forecasters are predicting one of the busiest seasons in recorded weather history.

Six to ten storms are forecasted to be full-blown hurricanes with winds reaching 74mph or higher, and three to five storms could be major hurricanes with deadly winds of 111 mph or above.

So what contributes to the storms packing a powerful punch?

Executive Director of the Small Island Sustainability Program at the University of The Bahamas, Dr. Kirsten Unwala, explains that:

“Basically a warmer atmosphere means there’s more kinetic energy, more movement, so it has a greater capacity to hold moisture, and that means more water from the ocean can pass from a liquid phase into the gaseous phase…that’s when you get more humidity and just more…water vapor being held in the atmosphere…fueling those hurricanes,” she says.

Unwala says it’s the result of climate change.

One of the most powerful storms to hit The Bahamas was Hurricane Dorian, a monster storm that devastated the Northern Bahamas in 2019.

Unwala called it an unforgettable example of how the changing environment is impacting weather patterns.

Also, with these powerful storms comes coastal flooding that can have devastating impacts on the environment and its ecosystems.

“Storm surges tend to reach farther inland. There’s flooring that happens for much longer periods, and then when you get that wave over wash…from the ocean, the waves coming onto the land along with the storm surge…will impact the water table and fresh water resources as well. So we saw on many islands in recent years with hurricanes that the water table has been impacted by storm surge flooding,” Unwala explains.

This presents a major challenge as many residents still rely on well water.

Here’s what you should do if this affects you:

“If families are relying on well water and the water table has been impacted by storms, they…would not be able to use that water because it will be too saline, and so relying on bottled water in those instances, ensuring that before hurricanes come that adequate water is in storage as well, [because] once salt water gets into the water table, essentially we can’t use that any longer,” Unwala says.