## Chart of the Week: A Storm by Any Other Name

_IMF Blog, June 19, 2017_

## Source details

**Canonical URL:** [Chart of the Week: A Storm by Any Other Name](https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2017/06/19/chart-of-the-week-a-storm-by-any-other-name)

## Other formats

- [Markdown version](/en/blogs/articles/2017/06/19/chart-of-the-week-a-storm-by-any-other-name/index.md)
- [Structured JSON version](/en/blogs/articles/2017/06/19/chart-of-the-week-a-storm-by-any-other-name/index.json)
- [Bundle manifest](/en/blogs/articles/2017/06/19/chart-of-the-week-a-storm-by-any-other-name/bundle-manifest.json)

## Bibliographic details
- Authors: The Editors
- Published: June 19, 2017

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### Hurricane season and vulnerability
- Hurricane season officially began June 1.
- The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s outlook predicts a busy Atlantic hurricane season.
- Hurricanes are the leading cause of natural disasters in the Caribbean, making the region one of the most vulnerable in the world.
- Only 62 percent of disasters caused by hurricanes have recorded data on economic damages.

### Relationship between wind speed and damages
- A recent paper examines the relationship between maximum wind speeds and hurricane damages, with the goal of estimating missing damage data for the Caribbean and calculating potential climate change costs.
- The analysis finds that damages in percent of GDP increase by about 3 percent with an increase in wind speed of 1 percent.
- Hurricanes that do not make landfall also leave a trail of damage in the Caribbean economies.

### Underreporting of damages
- The new data set shows hurricane damages are considerably underreported, particularly in the 1950s and 1960s.
- Average damages may be three times as large as the reported average of 1.6 percent of GDP per year.

### Climate change projections
- Climate change is expected to increase hurricane intensity because warmer sea surface temperatures create favorable conditions for large storms to form and strengthen.
- The data shows average annual hurricane damages in the Caribbean will increase between 22 and 77 percent by the year 2100, in a global warming scenario of high CO2 concentrations and high global temperatures.

### 2017 seasonal note
- Named storms to watch in 2017 include Hurricanes Arlene, Gert, Franklin, and Ophelia; their potential damage will weigh on people and their countries’ economies.

*Source: Chart of the Week: A Storm by Any Other Name (The Editors, June 19, 2017).*

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## Content in this bundle

- **Gone with the Wind: Estimating Hurricane and Climate Change Costs in the Caribbean**
  - [Gone with the Wind: Estimating Hurricane and Climate Change Costs in the Caribbean (Markdown version)](/external/pubs/ft/wp/2016/wp16199.pdf.md){rel="alternate" type="text/markdown"}
  - [Gone with the Wind: Estimating Hurricane and Climate Change Costs in the Caribbean (PDF)](/external/pubs/ft/wp/2016/wp16199.pdf){rel="external" type="application/pdf"}

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## References

- [https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/BLOG-1099x500-HAITI-PortSalut-women-looking-at-hurricane-destruction-Newscom-krtphotoslive770340.jpg](https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/BLOG-1099x500-HAITI-PortSalut-women-looking-at-hurricane-destruction-Newscom-krtphotoslive770340.jpg)
- [https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/FINAL-ENG_Jan_31__hurricane_1.jpg](https://www.imf.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/FINAL-ENG_Jan_31__hurricane_1.jpg)

_Source: https://www.imf.org/en/blogs/articles/2017/06/19/chart-of-the-week-a-storm-by-any-other-name_