False claims about Hurricane Milton’s origins spread online

But this trend fits with expectations of hurricanes generally intensifying more quickly in a warming world.

“As we warm the planet, we anticipate a lot of potential impacts to hurricanes that can make them more damaging – including the ability to strengthen more quickly over unnaturally warm ocean waters,” explains Andra Garner, an assistant professor at Rowan University in New Jersey.

Hurricane Helene – which hit Florida around two weeks ago – also intensified rapidly over the Gulf of Mexico.

A new study released on Wednesday found that the exceptionally high sea surface temperatures over its track were made hundreds of times more likely by human-caused warming.

“[Helene] was significantly more destructive because of climate change,” explains Ben Clarke of the World Weather Attribution group, which led the study.

Beyond typically stronger winds, climate change is also affecting other hurricane hazards.

A warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture – up to about 7% for every 1C of temperature rise. This means that rainfall can be more intense.

And global sea-levels have been rising in recent decades, largely thanks to global warming. This makes it more likely that a given storm surge – short-term increases to sea-levels from storms – will lead to coastal flooding.

In Florida, average sea-levels have risen by more than 18cm (7in) since 1970, external, according to US government data.

For some of the users spreading conspiracy theories around Hurricane Milton, this too amounts to “scaremongering”. But the evidence suggests otherwise.