00:00Roofs fly off like paper. Huge trees are yanked from the ground.
00:04Power lines snap and leave neighborhoods in the dark.
00:07Streets flood like rivers. Homes are left in ruins.
00:11That's a hurricane passing through.
00:14After the wind calms down, the real mess begins.
00:17People stranded. No clean water. Destroyed roads.
00:22Storms have been picking up for like 5,700 years.
00:26And the scariest part is that in the last 20 years, there's been a huge spike.
00:31But let's start from the very beginning.
00:33This is Belize, a small country on the northeastern coast of Central America.
00:39And this is the Great Blue Hole.
00:42A huge, deep underwater sinkhole about 410 feet deep and approximately 50 miles off the coast of Belize.
00:50It formed around 10,000 years ago, when the sea levels rose after the last ice age.
00:57A team of scientists arrived in Central America to study mud from way down in the Great Blue.
01:04They pulled out a long sample of sediment, which is basically layers of stuff that settled over time.
01:10You might ask, so what?
01:12How are tropical storms connected with this sediment?
01:15Let's see.
01:17Tropical cyclones are big, spinning storms that form over warm ocean water.
01:22They pull up heat from the sea and blast it into the sky.
01:26And yeah, they can be devastatingly destructive, with super strong winds, heavy rain, and floods from big waves.
01:35And mud cores, like the one the researchers pulled up, are actually records of tropical storms.
01:40The sample they pulled up was 98 feet long, which made it the longest ever found in that area.
01:48Here's how it works.
01:49Every year, two thin layers of sediment settle in the hole where the weather is calm.
01:54But when a big storm hits, it leaves behind a different, messier layer.
01:59So by looking at these layers, scientists could tell how many storms hit that spot over the last 5,700 years.
02:07It's like counting tree rings, you know?
02:11Anyway, what they found was rather unexpected.
02:14It turns out that tropical cyclones had been getting more and more common.
02:19The lead researcher said that over the past 6,000 years, there were usually between 4 and 16 tropical storms, or hurricanes, every 100 years.
02:28But just in the last 20 years alone, they found signs of 9 storms in that same little area.
02:37That's way more than usual, and it shows how much things are changing.
02:42Scientists think there are two main reasons why tropical storms have been happening more often.
02:47One reason has to do with something called the Intertropical Convergent Zone, or ITCZ.
02:53This is an area near the equator where winds from the north and south come together.
02:59That spot has low air pressure, lots of moisture, and tons of thunderstorms.
03:05Just above it is the part of the Atlantic Ocean where most hurricanes are born.
03:10It even has an official name, the Hurricane Main Development Region.
03:14Normally, the ITCZ moves north in the summer and south in the winter because of changes in ocean temperatures.
03:22But over the past few thousand years, it's slowly been shifting farther and farther south.
03:28That's why the area where storms usually start has also moved south.
03:34It means storms are now forming and heading toward lower parts of the Atlantic than they used to.
03:39The second reason for the recent spike in storms is rising ocean temperatures.
03:45Earth has gotten warmer, and the ocean has warmed up too.
03:49The warm oceans help make more powerful storms.
03:53Such an increase likely means that this part of the world might see a lot more big storms in the future.
03:59If things keep going the way they are, scientists think the Caribbean could get hit by as many as 45 tropical storms and hurricanes by the end of this century.
04:09That's way more than anything the world has experienced in the last 5,700 years.
04:15There are just too many changes in the world that influence the situation.
04:19They create the perfect conditions for more storms to form and get really intense, really fast.
04:25But if you think storms are getting more intense only over the ocean, let me tell you about America.
04:32A bunch of really dangerous storms, including tornadoes, dust storms, and wildfires,
04:37tore through several states in the Midwest and south of the USA in March 2025.
04:43At least 42 people lost their lives, and the scale of the devastation is enormous.
04:50What's scary is that most of this destruction didn't happen in the usual Tornado Alley area.
04:56Tornado Alley is a nickname for a part of the U.S. where tornadoes happen a lot.
05:02It stretches through places like northern Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri, parts of Louisiana, Iowa, Nebraska, and even eastern Colorado.
05:13But this time, storms hit places like Mississippi, Arkansas, and Alabama.
05:19Experts had warned this might happen.
05:21At the beginning of 2025, they said that tornadoes could start showing up more often farther east than usual.
05:28And that's exactly what's happening.
05:32One of their top weather experts said people in the Mississippi and Tennessee valleys should get ready for a rough spring.
05:40There are more people living in these areas than in traditional tornado zones,
05:43and many of them live in mobile homes or buildings without basements,
05:48which puts them at more risk when big storms hit.
05:52A tornado is basically a spinning tube of super-strong wind that comes down from storm clouds and touches the ground.
05:59They can be really dangerous.
06:03To figure out how strong a tornado is, scientists use something called the Enhanced Fujita Scale.
06:09It goes from EF0, which stands for the weakest tornado, to EF5.
06:14Such a tornado is crazy strong.
06:17Tear your house apart strong.
06:20The main question is, why are tornadoes happening more in the east now?
06:26In the U.S., tornado season usually kicks off in March.
06:30That's when cold air from Canada bumps into warm, wet air coming up from the Gulf of Mexico.
06:35And boom!
06:36Storms start to form.
06:38But this year, things are a bit different.
06:41Here's what's going on.
06:42There's a big patch of high pressure, basically a chunk of calm, warm air, hanging over the southwest.
06:50That's keeping things more stable out west, so fewer thunderstorms, as well as fewer tornadoes, are expected there.
06:56So, tornadoes are shifting eastward.
07:00Meanwhile, the Gulf of Mexico is super-warm this year, and that's helping storms form in the southeastern U.S.
07:07The warm water adds a lot of energy to the atmosphere, which can lead to stronger, more frequent storms in places like Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee.
07:17Up north, around the Great Lakes and northeast, it's staying cooler this spring.
07:22That means fewer big storms up there, at least for now.
07:25Now, let's get back to those devastating March storms.
07:30On March 14 and 15, a huge storm system blasted through parts of the central and southern U.S.
07:37This system brought 52 confirmed tornadoes, massive dust storms, and fast-moving wildfires.
07:44It all led to almost 1,100 canceled flights.
07:48About 150 million people were affected by this natural disaster.
07:54Two really strong tornadoes, classified as EF-4s, hit Arkansas.
07:59The damage was incredible.
08:02One of those tornadoes, which hit a town called Diaz, had winds up to 190 miles per hour.
08:08That's insanely fast!
08:11For comparison, the average speed of a Formula One car is around 130 to 160 miles per hour.
08:19It was the first time in over 25 years that Arkansas got hit by two EF-4s on the same day.
08:26Experts also recorded wind gusts moving at a speed of over 80 miles per hour in the southern plains.
08:33In Texas, dust storms led to fatal car crashes.
08:36Wildfires, caused and driven by the strong winds, burned through parts of Texas and Oklahoma.
08:43Oklahoma alone had more than 130 fires.
08:47So, what's next?
08:49Experts think the U.S. could see between 1,300 and 1,450 tornadoes in 2025.
08:57That's way more than the usual 1,225.
09:02And it's not just about tornadoes.
09:04A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture.
09:06That means heavier rains, more flash floods, and even more powerful storms.
09:12Basically, the formula is the following.
09:15Warmer oceans plus warmer air equals stormy weather, especially in the east and southeast.
09:20But even if you don't live in any of these areas, you can't feel completely at ease either.
09:27Experts say tornadoes and other natural disasters can happen pretty much anywhere in the U.S.
09:31The risk moves around depending on the time of year and the weather.
09:36That's it for today.
09:37So, hey, if you pacified your curiosity, then give the video a like and share it with your friends.
09:42Or if you want more, just click on these videos and stay on the bright side.
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