Is Deforestation Supercharging Cyclones?

By Erica Gies.

The airborne water cycle, destabilized by industrial logging and other land use, may be a hidden force behind growing superstorms.

Hurricane Helene devastated the southeastern United States at the end of September 2024, dumping unprecedented levels of rain. Then, just two weeks later, Hurricane Milton rapidly revved up to a Category 5 (before weakening), and shattered more rainfall records. Experts agree that typhoons, cyclones, and hurricanes are growing more intense with climate change, yet how these weather events—known collectively as cyclonic storms—build and amplify remains somewhat mysterious. A new paper proffers a possible answer: the airborne water cycle drives the power of these storms. If correct, deforestation may play a part in increasing storm intensity.

Healthy, intact forests play an outsized role in the world’s climate. They store carbon, absorb floods, and stabilize the water cycle—which, research shows, helps stabilize the climate.

It’s widely recognized that healthy forests stabilize the water cycle, in part, by pulling up groundwater and releasing vapor into the air, generating rain. Atmospheric physicists Anastassia Makarieva and her late mentor, Victor Gorshkov, both of Russia’s Petersburg Nuclear Physics Institute, took that idea one step further. First proposed in 2006, their theory, known as the biotic pump, argues that megaforests like the Amazon don’t just exhale vapor that becomes rain, they also generate wind, which actively pulls more vapor inland from the ocean to produce more rain.

The process starts when trees photosynthesize and release water vapor into the air. These vapor particles rush about as if inside an inflated balloon, increasing pressure. The gas then rises to cooler air, where it transforms into rainwater. This change shrinks the water’s volume, which in turn reduces pressure close to Earth’s surface, creating a partial vacuum that sucks in air and generates wind.

Image Credits: Needpix.com.