--- title: Hurricanes Are Slowing Down and Leaving More Damage description: Hurricanes are slowing down – and leaving behind a lot more damage when they make landfall, according to a study in Nature. canonical: https://time.com/5303486/hurricanes-slowing-down-study/ author: Gina Martinez article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-06-06T20:11:34.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T20:29:26.602Z article:section: Science og:title: Hurricanes Are Slowing Down and Leaving More Damage og:description: Hurricane Harvey is a devastating example of the trend og:url: https://time.com/5303486/hurricanes-slowing-down-study/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt89f0285077a79547/69892cea929fad6d5bbf0307/hurricane-harvey-houston.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: hurricane harvey houston og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Hurricanes Are Slowing Down and Leaving More Damage twitter:description: Hurricane Harvey is a devastating example of the trend twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt89f0285077a79547/69892cea929fad6d5bbf0307/hurricane-harvey-houston.jpeg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Hurricanes Are Slowing Down and Leaving More Damage When They Hit Land by [Gina Martinez](https://time.com/author/gina-martinez/) ## Gina Martinez Jun 6, 2018 8:11 PM UTC  In this NOAA handout image, NOAA's GOES East satellite capture of Hurricane Harvey shows the storm's eye as the storm nears landfall on Aug. 25, 2017 in the southeastern coast of Texas. In this NOAA handout image, NOAA's GOES East satellite capture of Hurricane Harvey shows the storm's eye as the storm nears landfall on Aug. 25, 2017 in the southeastern coast of Texas.Handout—Getty Images by [Gina Martinez](https://time.com/author/gina-martinez/) ## Gina Martinez Jun 6, 2018 8:11 PM UTC [Hurricanes](http://time.com/5289285/hurricane-season-2018-forecast-prediction-noaa/) are slowing down – and leaving behind a lot more damage when they make landfall, according to a new study. The study, published in the journal [_Nature_](https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0158-3#author-information), found that since 1949, tropical cyclones have decreased their speed by an average of 10% worldwide. The change is even more dramatic in storms that have made landfall from the North Atlantic – they’re moving 20 percent slower. The result is more rainfall and more damage to buildings as hurricanes hover over population centers for longer periods of time. “The unprecedented rainfall totals associated with the ‘stall’ of Hurricane Harvey over Texas in 2017 provide a notable example of the relationship between regional rainfall” and hurricane speed, wrote the study’s author, James P. Kossin of the NOAA’s Center for Weather and Climate in Madison, Wisconsin. [Hurricane Harvey](http://time.com/tag/hurricane-harvey/) lingered over south Texas for more than a week last September, dumping up to 60 inches of rain that left most of Houston underwater and resulted in 93 deaths. Kossin argues that the slow-down is caused by global warming, which is both increasing rainfall and decreasing wind currents. Kossin told [_Nature_](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05324-5) that a 10% slow-down in storm speed corresponds to a 10% increase in rainfall when a hurricane makes landfall. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5303486/hurricanes-slowing-down-study/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5303486/hurricanes-slowing-down-study/"},"headline":"Hurricanes Are Slowing Down and Leaving More Damage When They Hit Land","datePublished":"2018-06-06T20:11:34.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T20:29:26.602Z","description":"Hurricane Harvey is a devastating example of the trend","url":"https://time.com/5303486/hurricanes-slowing-down-study/","keywords":["Hurricanes","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt89f0285077a79547/69892cea929fad6d5bbf0307/hurricane-harvey-houston.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Gina Martinez","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/gina-martinez/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt89f0285077a79547/69892cea929fad6d5bbf0307/hurricane-harvey-houston.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"hurricane harvey houston","caption":"hurricane harvey houston","creditText":"Handout—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/hurricanes/","name":"Hurricanes"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5303486/hurricanes-slowing-down-study/","name":"Hurricanes Are Slowing Down and Leaving More Damage When They Hit Land"}}]}] ```