In the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, and in the face of another one on the way, a question on lots of peoples minds is: is this related to global warming? A really interesting article, and discussion, on this topic can be found at:

Hurricanes and Global Warming – Is There a Connection?

The summary is that yes there is a connection but it’s hard to tell how much for one particular event. Statistics over time is a much better metric than “would this one hurricane have happened if not for global warming?” For example, there may be stronger data to show correlations between hurricane strength rather than frequency of hurricanes.