Marshall Shepherd provides expertise on changing hurricane seasons- and what they mean for communities.


In a special edition of the Network for Engineering With Nature’s (N-EWN) Nature at Work series, Dr. Marshall Shepherd of UGA Geography provided expertise on hurricanes and the impact of a changing hurricane season on coastal communities. Shepherd is a Georgia Athletic Association Distinguished Professor of Geography and Atmospheric Sciences and an accomplished meteorologist.

On Friday, June 28, the National Hurricane Center began advisories on Tropical Depression Two, east of Barbados. Within 48 hours, it was Category 4 Hurricane Beryl. After another 24 hours, it was the earliest Category 5 hurricane on record.

“The 2024 hurricane season has been projected to be very active. We’re seeing that right before our eyes,” Shepherd warned. “The fact that we are, as you and I are talking about this, Hurricane Beryl is on our doorsteps and will impact Jamaica here shortly on July 3, now that’s bizarre. That’s just stunning people like me, because we typically don’t see Category 4 Category 5 major hurricanes before the Fourth of July.”

Shepherd goes into detail about the weather patterns that create hurricanes and how a changing climate is shifting those patterns. To learn more about interesting meteorology, check out his podcast with The Weather Channel, Weather Geekshere.

Read the full article here.

Featured image: June 30, 2024 – Hurricane Beryl was pictured east of Barbados as a Category 3 storm from the International Space Station as it orbited 263 miles above the Atlantic Ocean. Via NASA.