What Hurricane Beryl says about climate change

Hello. As Jamaica becomes the latest Caribbean country to assess Hurricane Beryl's damage, Mark Pointing explains what the storm's strength tells us about the effects of climate change. In France, Andrew Harding visits Marseille to understand how immigration became such a divisive political issue. We're also exploring the links between a cathedral in England and the US national anthem. Finally, a zoo in Australia is making cuddling koalas a thing of the past.

QUESTIONS ANSWERED

A devastating sign of a warming world

Rain lashed Jamaica for 12 hours. Credit: Reuters

A weakened Hurricane Beryl is headed for Mexico and the Cayman Islands. It left a trail of devastation across the Caribbean, killing at least 10 people and putting the role of climate change under the spotlight.

What made Hurricane Beryl such a powerful storm so early in the season?

A category five hurricane is unheard of this early in the season. Its strength fits into the broader picture of how these storms are changing in a warming world. While causes of individual storms are complex, exceptionally high sea surface temperatures are seen as a key reason why Hurricane Beryl has been so powerful.

What's the relationship between sea temperatures and hurricanes?

Warmer seas mean more powerful hurricanes, because the storms can pick up more energy, enabling higher wind speeds. Usually, strong storms develop after the seas have heated up through the summer. Hurricanes generally need the sea surface to be at least 27C (80.6F) to have a chance of developing. Waters along Hurricane Beryl’s path have been much warmer than this.

What else is unusual about Beryl?

Meteorologists and climate scientists have also remarked about how quickly Hurricane Beryl strengthened. The frequency and magnitude of these rapid intensification events in the Atlantic appears to have increased in recent decades.

THE BIG PICTURE

US anthem's surprising English links

A choir boy at the cathedral in his younger years, Stafford Smith grew up to become a professional musician. Credit: BBC

The lyrics for The Star-Spangled Banner came from a poem by Francis Scott Key inspired by the bombardment of Fort McHenry by British troops in the War of 1812. But its tune comes from an English drinking song written by the son of Gloucester Cathedral's director of music in the 1780s.

And finally... in Australia

What do pop superstar Taylor Swift, Russian President Vladimir Putin and many other tourists visiting Australia have in common? They will have visited the Lone Pine Sanctuary and taken a picture hugging a fluffy koala. Now, the small zoo has decided to put an end to the practice, citing feedback from visitors and concerns over the animals' wellbeing.